The Old Ways: Extra
by Vo0d0o-D0L
Summary: Waking up next to a corpse isn't the best way to start your day as I find out. Stuck in a place I shouldn't be, it's all I can do to try and survive until the skies darken. But when you're pit against a centuries old Matriarch with little more than the generosity of strangers even that becomes a challenge.
1. Ch 1: Transference

**Author's Note:**

Hey everyone, just a quick word before we begin. The story is set in the same Universe as KatKiller-V's "Another Realm" Series. I strongly suggest that you get your asses over there to give it a read if you haven't already. Since it's a part of the same universe this story will feature some of the same characters and locations but from another's perspective.

I would also be remiss to thank KatKiller-V for beta-ing this story and helping it to become a part of the version of Mass Effect that he has created.

As per usual; Disclaimer - I do not own the Mass Effect IP

* * *

 **Act 1: Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Transference**

* * *

I groaned.

It wasn't a voluntary groan by any means. It was something I simply did as a sort of non-release for the tension that my body had accrued since going to sleep. And for the pounding headache that I had.

I'd been in bed for a while now, having been made a double amputee by a car crash a few months back. It wasn't pleasant in the slightest. The bones in my lower legs had been crushed into little more than dust by the collapsing engine block of the car, and the flesh had already had the preliminary signs of infection by the time I'd made it to the hospital. I mean, I don't really remember any of that, but that's what I was told.

It had been several days later before I came into a semi-conscious state. The police and hospital staff had surrounded me at first. Hospital staff to make sure that I was lucid, and the police needed a statement from me, as well as asking whether or not I was going to press charges.

My family had a lot to say about that one but in the end we had. I felt kind of bad for the guy, but I was also pissed as hell at him. He'd crippled me because he was too stupid to realise that you shouldn't be driving and having a conversation on the phone while under the influence of whatever the hell kind of drugs the police had said he'd been taking.

But then, that's life for you.

I suppose, I should've taken that as a sign that no matter how much shit life can throw at you, it can always throw more.

I risked opening my eyes against the harsh light that was threatening to break through my shut eyelids, and I wasn't met with the sight I was expecting. I was expecting to be in my hospital room, awaiting a nurse to come and help me off the bed before taking me to my physical therapy. However, what I instead received was a sharp light cast from a bedside lamp, which gave a low glow to my surroundings and a rather different looking room. Something that looked more akin to a hotel room, than a hospital one.

Propping myself up I slowly looked around the room, wondering if I was in a dream, or perhaps I'd been transferred while I was asleep? No, I was dreaming. I must be.

The bed was against the back wall, with a door off to the side where I assumed was a bathroom, although I couldn't see any way to access it. The opposite wall was a single, enormous window, revealing the nighttime city skyline. What surprised me the most about the view wasn't that fact that it looked like I'd been moved to Eastern Europe, what surprised me was the fact that I could faintly make out objects moving against the dark backdrop of the sky. Were they planes? Or was I merely imagining things?

That revelation was probably the only thing that stopped me from noticing the body in the bed next to me as soon as I should have.

My gaze was brought abruptly downwards as I leaned across to get a better view through the window and my hand brushed against something solid under the covers. Fortunately they were clothed. That, I could feel as my hand slid over their form under the bedsheets, but they didn't seem to be breathing. And as dread began to fill me, I noticed that there was blood on their face. Their decidedly inhuman face.

I could feel myself going into shock as adrenaline coursed through my body and my head cleared almost instantly, the grogginess of sleep and the aches and pains of lying in one position too long vanishing in a split second as I reeled back and tried to get out of bed, only to fall onto the floor, phantom pain slashing at my non-existent shins as I tried to make my legs work to put as much distance between myself and the dead alien lying on the bed.

Where had that body come from? Had it always been there? Had I killed it? No, surely I hadn't, I'd been asleep… Was someone playing a practical joke on me? Yeah, that's what it was, a joke. Someone thought they were funny. Well har har, you got me.

I felt myself starting to shake. It felt like I was crying, and then my nose started to run at roughly the same time as something began to come out of my ears. I put my hand to my face, tentatively touching the warm wetness that I could feel there. I let out a quiet whimper at what I saw.

It was my own blood.

The adrenaline rush that had hit me like a bullet train was leaving just as fast, a rough pounding in my head filling its place. I let out a garbled sound of panic as I faded, and I thought I saw the door opening, but I was out before it had even begun to move.

When I awoke again, I wasn't alone.

My eyes opened with a start and I drew in a deep ragged breath before hacking it back up, clearing whatever it was in my throat. More blood most likely. That thought passed largely unnoticed by the rest of my mind, and as my breathing slowed and returned to normal, I realised that there was a figure sitting in the hotel room's chair.

My breathing started to speed back up and the panic that I felt only seemed to intensify as I realised that the figure was alien. It was… impossible. I… I recognised what it was though, and that was the thing that shocked me most of all. I'd like to say that the alien I'd met had been something incomprehensible, something grotesque and unimaginable. That would at least confirm that I was dreaming. But… it wasn't. It was an Asari.

An honest to God, goddamn Asari. From the fictional world of Mass Effect.

My eyes darted between her and the bed, the deceased Alien body outlined by the sheets, the dark purple blood seeping through the covers, a few flies flitting over the corpse, unable to get to the decaying flesh to no doubt lay their spawn in.

There was daylight now, streaming in from outside. The swarm of… flying cars hadn't stopped moving since I'd passed out against the wall last night.

"I see you've finally decided to wake up." Some part of my head didn't quite understand what she was saying at first, instead, choosing to listen purely to the sounds that were coming out of her mouth - a sort of rolling musical sound, kind of like I was listening to the sea.

Her blue skin seemed almost teal in the sunlight, her nondescript clothing managing to give off an air of wealth and authority despite the lack of embellishments. The same could be said for the woman herself. I was ready to deny both her presence and her nature with every fibre of my being, but I knew what she was.

Somehow she must have sensed recognition in me. Perhaps she'd seen it in my face. Did it mean that she's done this before? I couldn't say.

"I take it you know what I am." She asked, tilting her head to the side as she tried to convey a sense of reassurance, or rather what looked like reassurance anyway.

"Asari." The word barely made it out of my mouth as a whisper, but she heard it nonetheless.

It couldn't be real. I must have been having some sort of hallucination, a delayed reaction to the painkillers I'd been on? Perhaps there'd been a mixup and instead of painkillers I'd received some sort of hallucinogen instead?

It would certainly explain a lot.

"In the past, I have been gentle with the telling of just how it is that you came to be here, but that has had rather dire consequences" I could almost hear the unspoken ' _I'm bored of it.'_ "Instead, I will be blunt." She paused to gauge my reaction - or perhaps it was simply for dramatic effect. "You are not where you think you are. The year is 2180, and you are currently situated on the planet Bekenstein In the Serpent Nebula, quite a way from home, I'm sure. I'm afraid that it might be a bit much to take in, but you were brought here across dimensions."

Across _dimensions_? I mean… Mass Effect was a game. A _game_ for God's sake. Sure I enjoyed it… but that didn't mean I wanted to be inside it! The world fucking ends for crying out loud! This had to be a ruse of some sort… Some sort of trick. Something, _anything_ other than being real.

"This can't be real. The hospital must have made a mistake yesterday." I muttered to myself, but she obviously heard me.

"Unfortunately, no, they didn't make a mistake." She said gently, with a shake of her head.

A sudden thought occurred to me. "What happened to me in the other dimension?"

"We don't know. The prevailing theory is that it is as though you never existed at all." She didn't seem that comforting for someone who was, I thought, supposed to be easing my transition.

"But I could be lying dead in my hospital bed? I could have simply disappeared and people will be searching for me?" I could feel my ire beginning to rise, bubbling just under the surface, but I held it back, the beginnings of what felt like static making the hairs on my arms begin to rise.

"Yes, that is a possibility." She said in return. Any illusion of her comfort seemed to evaporate with the lack of sincerity in her voice.

"Can you send me back? Please?" I could feel tears threaten to overcome my eyes as I struggled to process everything. Perhaps if I could get back home, then it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe I would just be able to stay for a while, experience a little bit of fiction in the flesh, and then go home where it was safe and I wasn't about to be atomised by giant cthulhu ships.

But that hope came crashing down around me with a single word.

"No." She said quietly, but firmly. "Unfortunately, she was the only one who knew when and where you were before coming here." She said, gesturing with her hand to the dead Asari that had been lying next to me.

"Well what then?" I asked, looking at her expectantly.

"I'm sorry?" She asked back in confusion, leaning forward slightly as she did so.

"What do you want me to do? What do you expect me to do? I don't have any fucking legs, it's not like I can do anything as I am. You managed to bring me here, accident or not, I didn't fucking _ask_ to be brought here." She seemed to be about to speak, but I raised my voice before she could get the words out. "I'm just going to assume that you know the shit that's going down in a few years time." She gave a slight nod as she closed her mouth again. "Right. So, here's the problems I have with this. I have no legs, I have practically no employability, not because of my physical state, but because of the fact that I didn't have a fucking profession before you dragged me here. At least, I don't remember having one anyway. I don't know anyone in this stupid galaxy so that puts me even further up shit creek. Not only that, but the whole fucking galaxy is fucking fucked in less than a decade." I fumed, raising my hand and counting off the different points I was making on my fingers, my voice steadily rising as I grew increasingly irate. "So thanks for changing my condition from crippled, to fucking terminal."

I don't know what it was, but despite how angry I was at the whole thing, there was a part of me that wanted to laugh. There I was, completely alone, crippled, and sat on the floor with blood on my face, ranting to an Asari - someone that not only were a work of fiction, but were also over one hundred and fifty years into the future.

I was alone.

That thought seemed to reverberate in my mind as I realised that it was the truth now. Before, sure I'd had lonely days where I wouldn't have a visitor and not even the company of my physio seemed like actual company, but I had never been truly alone. I had never, not once in my entire life, not known a single person.

I knew that if I let it, I would be crushed under the weight of that loneliness. It would literally tear me apart.

"Another one…" She seemed to mutter as her eyes drifted for a split second before her eyes refocused on me.

"I'm going to have to apologise to you for this, but you were indeed brought here by accident. And I truly do mean by accident. Myself and my order have learned to peer through dimensions and do the impossible. Bring a soul from the other side." Her voice sounded as though she wanted me to be impressed. I suppose, in a way, it is impressive. But if you don't have any control over who you bring across, it's a useless skill. She spared a long glance at the dead alien. "Unfortunately it is proving to be quite costly. A life, for a life as it were."

"By accident?" I repeated, without looking in her direction, merely gazing out the window at nothing as the sky cars flew lazily by in the distance, the occasional few moving around closer to the building. A harsh bark of laughter escaped my lips before I muttered "No shit."

I hadn't been brought here on purpose? How fucked up can this situation get? No. Don't answer that - especially you, Universe, you sick fuck. I let out a huff of air that could have passed as a quiet snort. What the fuck.

"So what now then?" I asked quietly. "What plans do you have for the future?"

"We have been searching for someone on your side of the dimensions. Someone who will help the saviour of our own." I knew that she meant Shepard. Who the hell else would it be? "Unfortunately you, are not that person."

"Of course not. Look at me." I said, interrupting her.

"I can however, help you to acclimatise to your new location. Perhaps I can even change your condition from Terminal to… healthy? Before I help you though, you must help me." I looked at her as she finished, questions in my eyes as she continued. "What's your name?"

"Greg… Greg Morley." I said after a moment, slightly unsure if I was making the right choice or not, but with the prospect of being able to control my own destiny again… I had no choice, really. And I hated that.

"And what were you doing in your… previous life."

"Well… I… I remember I was still a student when you fucking dropped me here but... I was an artist. I… Fuck, I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. I pissed about with computers, I drew shit, I exercised." It wasn't a specific answer, but I didn't have one. It was the best that I could give her.

"Did you learn how to fight?" She persisted.

I looked at her warily before nodding. "I guess… I mean, I've had training, but I haven't really been in a fight for my life yet."

"It is better than nothing. I'm sure you will quickly gain experience in this life." She said with a small smile.

"You know, that's not exactly reassuring." I replied, my voice deadpan.

"Do not worry, there are people on world who are indebted to me. I will make sure that you have what you need." I merely nodded my thanks in return as she continued. "You will need a job if you are to survive, I'm sure my contacts will be able to help you in that regard." Again, I merely nodded. "Your documents are already in the process of being forged, I'm sure they will be ready shortly. Before we depart, I must warn you. Do not try and become intimate with another of my species. I am sure you are aware of how we mate?" At my lack of confused expression, she continued. "She -" She pointed to the dead Asari "was an Ardat Yakshi who took an interest in you, but I managed to pull her off before you became catatonic. You are now a survivor of floating mind syndrome. If you try to meld with another, you will die in a manner not dissimilar to how you passed out last night. It will be painful."

I sat for what seemed like an eternity, disbelief etched almost permanently onto my features before I schooled them and relaxed my face. This is happening. Maybe it could be fun? Dangerous, no doubt… but… I mean, it's not like I can go back and get my fami- no. I better not go down that road. At least… not yet anyway. _Not in present company_. I thought to myself sourly.

"I think perhaps it is time I helped you get settled here." She said after about a minute or so of quiet. She stood and opened the hotel room door, quietly murmuring something for someone on the other side of the doorway, before she stepped aside and a small troop of Asari walked through, all wearing nondescript clothing without any markings or tattoos on their faces.

"If you come with me I can make sure that your… condition is changed. And perhaps you will find that the odds aren't as terrible as you make them out to be."

"I'll believe that when I see it." I said. Having to hold in a snort at the irony of the situation. If someone had told me a year ago, that I'd be in a car crash which would result in me getting dragged into a fictional universe… I would have told them they'd gone mental and that there was quite literally, no way that that was possible.

Then again… I'm here, aren't I?

Two more aliens entered and picked up the body of the Asari with a look of slight disdain as they glanced in my direction, but otherwise didn't say anything. A third was pushing a wheelchair that looked like something Professor X might roll around in, coming straight towards me before stopping next to me and moving around the chair to put me in it.

Not wanting to be manhandled I deftly swatted her hands away as I walked on the stumps of my legs, wincing with each impact on the ground and balancing with my arms. It was only a couple of 'steps' until I reached the wheelchair, thankfully, but when I reached it I pulled myself up and onto it, before placing my hands on the wheels and manually twisting myself around and approaching the Asari who was almost certainly in charge of the lot of them.

"Must you be so stubborn?" She asked me with a slight smirk on her face.

"I'm not a damn charity case. I don't need your pity." I retorted, perhaps a bit more venomously than I should have, but I was not one to appear weak. At least, not on purpose anyway. Not only that but I didn't trust anyone in this room further than I could throw them. And at the moment, that wasn't exactly a great distance. "Lead on." I said, my voice half inviting, half commanding as I cut the conversation.

Thankfully nobody said anything until we'd gotten down the lobby of the hotel that we were in, the elevator ride held in slightly awkward silence as the Asari's entourage shuffled occasionally. I merely opted to stare out at the luscious view of the planet, somewhere in the back of my mind remembering the second game's dlc for Kasumi. I hate to admit it, but I was very aware of their positioning in the elevator though. Slightly too close to me for my liking but I didn't want to seem as though I was being delusional. The open hall that served to greet people was surprisingly devoid of said people - even the receptionists seemed to be hiding somewhere which was odd, but I put it down to the enigmatic Matriarch, who had probably cleared the entire hotel of everyone as soon as she'd found out I had been brought into this dimension.

We moved outside and waited off to the side of the building where what was essentially a giant Helipad was situated. It even had the giant 'H', although it also had symbols written in various languages in marginally smaller lettering in the four corners of the oversized launchpad.

Besides the H, the only other symbol I recognised was a very flowy-looking thing that reminded me of something written in Chinese or perhaps Japanese.

"How can I understand you?" I asked suddenly, as the realisation that I'd been conversing with an Alien for the past ten minutes or so smacked me in the face. "Translator?" I asked, hoping I was right.

"The transference tends to leave an imprint in the mind of whoever is brought across. You can understand me, because you understand Asari dialect. You can talk to me, because you can speak the Asari dialect. Well, you can speak Thessian standard anyway." The nonchalant way in which she informed me of my ability to speak a new language shocked me into silence.

It irked me that she could be so casual about all of this. Here I was some guy from the twenty first century and she was just acting as though all of this was completely normal. Although it probably was, for her at least.

We didn't have to wait very long after that before a shuttle touched down and we entered. A ramp was lowered so that I didn't have to get out of the wheelchair, and the Asari didn't have to bother with hefting me up the foot or so height into the shuttle. Practically as soon as we were inside the shuttle we took off, heading for wherever the hell we were going.

"I don't trust you." I said quietly, looking intently at the woman who I'd woken up to. She was powerful, that much was obvious, but it was hard to say just how much power and influence she had - and whether or not that sort of power and influence was the open kind or not. Although I wasn't dumb enough to think that she was the sort of person who did anything in the open, as it were.

She smiled lightly, as if a joke had managed to reach her ears but wasn't amusing enough to laugh.

"You aren't as stupid as you look then… Greg." She said, leaning forwards so that she could speak more quietly as her expression became grim. "Let me tell you this though. If you have any delusions of grandeur, any whim to go and find and help the saviour of this universe… You will not. You will stay away from them. And should a chance meeting occur, you will interact with them as little as possible. I'm sure you understand what would happen should you choose to ignore this warning."

I couldn't help but nod my head in understanding. If I try to join up with Shepard… I'm dead. The speech though, it seemed rehearsed. Perhaps it wasn't the exact same speech that she'd given to any others, but the main focus was still the same.

"How many others are there?" I almost whispered.

"That… I cannot tell you." Of course… I sighed internally, and didn't bother to look at the Asari sitting opposite me. Of course there were others. Whether or not they were alive, was another matter. I would have to try and find out on my own, but if her response was anything to go by, there were definitely other people like me, people who'd been brought into this universe against their will. And she didn't want us banding together.

The shuttle ride took maybe an hour before we landed, the shuttle touching down inside a compound that I couldn't see until the doors opened and the ramp was let down so that I could get out.

What greeted us was a pair of Salarians who looked rather pissed off, if the way that their bulbous eyes were furrowed was anything to go by.

"Sugorn." The Asari beside me said. "Where's Victus?"

"Matriarch." Sugorn, the Salarian on the right, replied coldly. His large eyes practically turned to slits as he viewed her, though she didn't seem to react in any such way. "He's inside, training the cubs."

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards one side of the compound which appeared to hold some sort of gymnasium. As well as a firing range if the muted cracks were anything to go by.

"Thank you. If you please." As she spoke she bowed her head slightly and gestured in the same direction with a slow wave of her hand. The Salarian muttered something as he turned and lead us towards the doors of the building, his companion eyeing us with suspicion as he stepped aside to let us past.

As we entered the building the Asari turned to me, and in a tone that left no room for argument, told me to stay put.

It was a minute or so later before the second Salarian came and stood beside me, his wiry frame reaching to what I assumed was a little over six feet.

"You owe Matriarch something too?" He said quietly as he leaned against the wall beside me. I didn't know much about his race in reality, but he seemed a lot thinner than what the games described. Although total accuracy wasn't to be expected I supposed.

"More like she owes me after this shit, but I doubt she'll see it that way." I grunted back, disapproval colouring my tone.

"Not likely." He grunted back. "If you're staying here, I doubt you'll be in that chair for very long." I glanced at him, cocking an eyebrow in disbelief before going back to glaring at the door 'Matriarch' had disappeared through.

"You got a name?" He asked after a minute's silence.

"Greg." I replied curtly, glancing at him again before adding "You?"

"Jistok. But most people call me Ratchet." He seemed like a decent enough guy, even if he was an alien that I didn't know anything about. I decided to indulge him for the time being.

"You an engineer Ratchet?" I asked, turning to face him for the first time that conversation.

"That's me. Along with Clank." I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "I wouldn't let him catch you laughing at his name." He smiled. "Clank's a krogan."

I couldn't help but carry on my chuckle for a moment before deciding to explain what the joke was. "It's not that. It's just… Ratchet and Clank was an old human video game. One of them was an engineer while the other was a little robot."

He shared a little chuckle with me before his expression turned a little more serious. "You got a profession Greg?"

I shook my head and he frowned. "I was a student… not long ago." I said, unwilling to give away too much history to someone I didn't know if I could trust. "Wanted to be an Artist. I wasn't half bad too, if my friends and teachers were to be believed. Was in a car collision a few months back. Stopped me from doing anything except trying to get back to the way things were for a while… And now this shit's happening."

"Sounds rough." He said with a sympathetic look on his face, but my unamused glare quickly made him change it. "You, uh… You know how to fight?"

I narrowed my eyes at the question, but nodded. "Better than most. Although… I don't know about that anymore." I said with a gesture at my legs, which were little more than stumps since they'd amputated above the knee. While it was true, when I had my legs I had been a black belt in Tao Te, which took me 13 years to achieve. But I'd also dabbled in Taekwondo, Karate, Judo and Kickboxing. I enjoyed it because it kept me active. That, coupled with gymnastics gave me a party trick or two that I could use to show off to my friends.

But despite all my training, the biggest fight that I'd been in ended in less than a couple of seconds when me and my friend were in a club. I'd sidestepped the guy attacking and left my leg out which he promptly tripped over and fell into the back of a bouncer. My friend - someone much more built than I had simply opted to get the first hit in as soon as it looked like the guy was about to attack, and handed him a nap.

Add all this to the fact that I hadn't had my legs in the better part of a year and… I didn't know anymore.

"Ever fired a gun before?" I gave him a curious look but nodded slowly.

"Semi-auto only though. And occasionally a shotgun. It was uh... a school thing. I was better with a bow." I didn't elaborate more than that since I didn't know if the Cadet Forces were still a thing in this day and age, let alone the fact that I hadn't shot any 'modern' guns. And nobody used bows and arrows anymore. I didn't even know if it was still a sport. It suddenly hit me that I was giving this guy all of this personal information and I knew next to nothing about him besides the fact that he was an Engineer people called Ratchet.

"Gonna have to change that pretty soon." He said quietly to me as the Matriarch and a hunched Turian using a staff to help him move around exited the doors.

"Ratchet, you may return to your work." The Turian said kindly to the Salarian beside me, his flanging voice slightly gravelly, but his tone gentle nonetheless. He took off briskly, no doubt eager to get away from the Asari, but took one final glance back and waved at me before he disappeared from view.

"So you're the survivor, huh." He gave me an appraising look. It was slightly unnerving, but I held my ground and nodded once.

"Well, I don't think I've seen worse in a long time." He said scratching his chin before turning to the Matriarch. "We're even after this." He simply said, before calling for Sugorn and speaking to him quietly for a second. I could see Sugorn open his mouth in protest, but he was cut off before he could voice anything and nodded curtly before turning on his heel and heading out of sight.

"This is where I leave you." Matriarch said to me, as she stood between me and the door. "I shall be back soon to check on you." She gave a meaningful look at the Turian before walking out, her entourage quickly falling in behind her.

"Good riddance." I muttered to myself.


	2. Ch 2: Transhuman

**Author's Note:** It seems like there's been a pretty good reception for this story so far, so I'll keep it up as much as I can when I'm not doing my uni work :)

* * *

 **Act 1: Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Transhuman**

* * *

"Hm. You don't seem like much Pyjak. What did you do to get the boss to owe you?" The Krogan, Clank, spoke deep voice seemed to echo in the small space of the garage.

"He didn't do anything Clank. This is the Matriarch's business." Jistok Ozzik, a wiry Salarian and engineer said to the lumbering Krogan as he worked on the underside of a shuttle.

"Mmm... I thought I smelled that rotten old fish around here." He grumbled, his lumbering footsteps coming from the other side of the shuttle he'd been inside, working on one part or another as he came around to see me. "Not a lot of love for that whore around here."

It had been an awkward couple of days since the Matriarch had left. She told Victus, the old Turian who was commonly referred to as the 'Crow' when not in his presence, thanks to his hunched walk and feathered cloak, that she would be back in a few days to check up on me, but by that time I'd been lead to a bathroom so that I could change into clean clothes and remove the dried blood from my face and neck.

I almost broke down when I was finally by myself, the stress of everything that I'd been through showing behind the cracks in my facade. I almost thought I could smell ozone over the scent of cleaning products when the emotional storm in me was at its worst, but it had quickly subsided.

I'd spent most of my time alone, trying to stay out of the suspicious gazes of the vast majority of people living in the compound. A couple of burly looking Turians had cornered me early on, most likely about to interrogate me, but Victus had stopped them. After that, things had settled slightly, but I could tell a few still wanted to beat whatever information they could out of me.

For his part, Victus seemed to neither trust nor despise me, going so far as to say that I would have to earn his trust before I could become 'a denizen of the Nest.'

Sugorn, the other Salarian that was there when we landed, kept his distance from me, eyeing me with disdain when he no doubt thought I couldn't see him, muttering words to the other people around the compound as he glanced at me. I had no doubt in my mind that he was starting up the rumour mill. I also had no doubts that it would bite me in the ass.

After all, who would the people trust? Someone they already know, or some human kid dropped off on their doorstep by a sinister Asari Matriarch?

It wasn't all bad though, a few of the residents had given me the benefit of the doubt and made some small talk, a couple of Asari being the most welcoming - besides Ratchet, who, in comparison to the others, had practically taken me under his wing after our first conversation.

I'd made my way into the compound's shuttle bay, which also served as a garage and workshop, where Ratchet had told me to find him once I was done getting myself settled. I still had yet to be told where - or if - I would be staying more permanently, but I'd decided to focus on one thing at a time.

"Yes. It seems the Matriarch leaves behind nothing but ruin." Ratchet added as he finished working on… whatever it was he was working on and marched over to me as well.

Seeing the two of them next to each other was… disconcerting. The way that Ratchet talked about Clank, I'd had to remind myself that on the whole, their two species loathed each other. Clank was a veritable wall of muscle and armour - and he wasn't even wearing combat armour either, opting instead for the krogan edition of a mechanic's overalls, grease and oil stains covering his being, although they did little to hide the Krogan's relatively jovial attitude.

"You won't hear me saying any different." I added as they both came to a halt in front of me. After all, as far as I know, she ripped me away from my old life and shoved me here without doing so on purpose.

"Crow say anything to you about what's going to happen to you?" Clank asked, leaning back against the shuttle as the metal groaned in protest of having his weight resting on it. He grunted as I shook my head no. "What happened to your legs then?" He asked, waving a three-fingered hand at the gap between where I was sat on the loaned wheelchair, and the ground.

"Car crash." I said roughly. "Engine smashed into my shins, splintered my bones and ground what little was left into dust." I suppressed a wince at the memory, but by now it was more like recollecting facts than the actual pain of the event. Especially since all I really had to go from that was the lingering phantom pain that went with missing extremities.

"Impressive for someone as squishy as a human to go through that and survive one of those Asari demons." He narrowed his eyes at me, his suspicion grilling me as he muttered something under his breath.

"Just luck I guess." I let out a huff of air as a sort-of-snort. "Or misfortune, depending on how you look at it. Besides, I didn't fight her off myself. I was apparently in the process of being mind fucked when the Matriarch stopped her."

Clank snorted as his eyes narrowed at me slightly, as though he were trying to see through whatever facade I was trying to build.

"Crow's got everything set up here. It's a nice small community that we've got, but you'll have to be moved to the local hospital for your surgery." It was Ratchet who'd spoken, and I turned to look at him fully.

"My what?" I asked, dumbly.

"Your surgery… you… haven't been told yet?" When my head slowly shook, my face frozen in confusion. "Dammit. Wasn't for me to say."

"No. It wasn't." We all jumped - well, myself and Ratchet jumped, Clank merely turned his head slowly before lowering it in a nod as though he'd known that Victus had been there the entire time. Which, in fairness, he probably had.

"What surgery?" I asked, twisting the chair around so that I was facing the ancient Turian.

"You're getting new legs." He said with finality. I felt my face freeze in confusion for a few moments before I began to babble nonsense as words stumbled over themselves to get out my mouth. "Come with me, we'll get you prepared for your surgery shortly, but first, I would have a word with you in private."

He looked meaningfully at the two others in the room and they simply nodded respectfully before heading out of the shuttlebay, their quiet chatter becoming muted as the bay doors shut behind them.

"I don't know how much of your mind was taken by that Asari… _thing_." He said, letting his words hang in the air as he spoke. "But _if_ you are to be believed, and Ratchet thinks you are, there is always more room here at the Nest for those willing to put the work in."

The Nest was the name of the little compound - which was actually quite large, except for when you compared it to the decadence of the rest of the planet - it housed a decent sized community of roughly one hundred and fifty people, aliens and humans alike. Of course, everyone had their jobs to do either around the place, or for other people on world. I'd managed to glean that Victus wasn't terribly fond of the rest of the planet, mainly because they were either white-collar criminals, mercenaries, or pirate lords and ladies etc, etc.

"It's a nice place." I replied non-committally. "I'm not sure what use I can be of around here though."

"Once you have gone through your rehabilitation, we will have time for you to decide what you want to do. I will be open about this Greg, I already have people looking into who you are. Not a lot of us trust outsiders. And none of us trust _her_. We're all indebted to her in one way or another around here." I nodded in understanding. I doubted that they would find anything since I wasn't from this dimension… but if they did, I would have questions. And lots of them. At that moment, an Asari entered the shuttle bay, moving with purpose as she strode up to Victus.

"We're ready to go, sir." The Crow's mandibles flared in what I assumed was a small Turian smile before he nodded and the Asari walked over to an aircar, Victus gesturing for me to follow her as he turned and began his slow march to the vehicle.

The next couple of hours went by rather quickly. It was barely a thirty minute… flight… I guess, over the city to the capital's hospital where we checked in for my surgery before I was whisked away from Victus and taken into a waiting room.

On my own, I was nervous, yeah, but that was largely because I had no idea what to expect. In the couple days that I'd been in this universe, I'd met all of five people. Ratchet, Clank, Victus, an Asari called Aela who'd been the one to drive us to the hospital, and her younger sister Lily. The first was born to a Turian about a century and a half before Lily, whose father had been Human. Neither of them liked to talk about their mother, so I hadn't pried for information. It was only respectful of me since no one had asked any pointed questions about who I was just yet.

The hour that I'd spent in the waiting room I'd alternated between being lost in my own thoughts, wondering just what the hell I was going to be doing with my life now that I was stuck in a different universe, or watching some Asari kids show that reminded me a little of Spongebob Squarepants. With aliens.

And suddenly, it was time. I was under no illusion that my surgery was happening so soon because of the Matriarch, although I imagined that Victus being the Turian he was, had quite the bit of sway himself and so were able to get me into surgery literally as soon as possible.

A Salarian doctor accompanied by a cadre of nurses entered my room with a gurney that would take me to the theatre. They helped me onto the moving bed and then we were away, the sterile white lights of the hospital threatening to blind me every time they came overhead. It was a short ride into surgery, and the doctor informed that I would be under for a few hours while they attached the prostheses to my body and ensured that my body wouldn't reject the augments, fusing the artificial nervous system in the metal legs to my own biological one.

When the time came, a mask was placed over my face, before a shot of general anaesthetic was painlessly introduced into my body, and I was out.

It was hard to tell how long I'd been out.

The effects of a general anaesthetic don't really put you to sleep, more than knock you unconscious, so the sleep isn't really restful. I let out a steady groan that turned into a yawn as I gradually crawled out of the grogginess clouding my brain.

It was a few moments before I realised that I felt different.

A memory in my head told me that this is almost what it had felt like before the car crash all those months ago. For some reason, I imagined that almost the entirety of the last year had been a dream, and I opened my eyes expecting to find my legs still attached to my body.

My eyes opened slowly, my body struggling to catch up with my brain as the effects of the numbing drug wore off of my corporeal self much slower than they did mentally. The first thing to catch my eye was the empty hospital room that I was in.

I berated myself a little for thinking that I'd been imagining the whole thing when I realised that I was still in the 'mass-effect-verse' as it were. In that same moment I wondered why I'd felt normal again. Before I remembered that I'd just been in surgery. My body was mostly covered by the hospital gown that I'd been dressed in, with some covers placed on top of me on the bed I was lying in.

I felt the need to stretch building and I uncoiled my muscles, my whole body unraveling itself. Which was when the grogginess in my brain vanished in an instant as I noticed that I could feel my legs again.

I could feel my legs again.

I struggled to sit up in the bed that I'd been unconscious in, but succeeded after a moment of weakness as I yawned again, leaning on my right arm as my left hand came up to cover my mouth.

Tentatively, I put my hands on the two raised bumps under the covers where my new legs were. As I ran my hands slowly down my legs I felt the transition from flesh to metal, felt the raises and divots, felt the holes in the design of the prosthetics and the artificial muscles beneath the metal coverings. I could feel my new knees, which bent slightly too much in one direction, with a second joint further down, bending my legs back into a, more or less, straight line.

Not wanting to put it off any longer, I removed the covers obscuring my view.

I was… impressed to say the least.

Giddy is probably a better term. I almost looked like I'd stepped out of Deus Ex, the way that the metal cleanly went into my skin, mechanical entry points dotting my thighs as a way of maintaining the artificial muscles there no doubt. The legs themselves were a combination of artificial muscle, hydraulics and electrical servos, if the way that several sections of the prosthetics span slowly as I moved my new legs, the quiet whirr of movement accompanied by the slide of the hydraulic system. The prosthetics started about halfway up my thighs, the muscles contained by metal plating, which was in turn covered by sturdier looking plating set out in triangles that were arranged into hexagons and angled their way around and down my legs. Both knee joints were protected on their respective 'outsides' by two thick plates which met in a point and connected to the lower part of the joint, leaving the top open so as not to restrict movement. The lowest part of my legs, consisted of little more than hydraulics and plates to protect them, before more servos and artificial muscle were introduced around the ankle joint where my feet were resting.

My feet were different too. Instead of the five toed things I'd had all my life, I was now presented with three. Two on the front that were loosely curled before I tried to move them and they stretched out, and one on the back that didn't move at all, most likely because it was more of a support, or perhaps it was what I got for a heel, than an actual toe. My 'feet' had a rather high bridge, and as I tested putting them up against the backboard of the bed I saw that the rear toe acted like a heel, keeping most of my foot off the ground as it arched down to the ground where the front two toes supported most of my weight.

I was so absorbed in discovering my legs that I hadn't noticed the door opening and several figures entering my room. It wasn't until I heard a cough that I startled and practically jumped out of my skin as I saw Victus, Ratchet, Aela and the doctor standing in the now rather cramped space with amused looks on their faces.

"I see you're already awake Greg." The Salarian doctor announced. "And you've taken no time in getting a feel for your new appendages. Good." He moved around the bed to my side and picked up a datapad from the side table that I hadn't even noticed before handing it to Ratchet. "You'll have to be here for a few more days I'm afraid, you need some therapy sessions and we need to make sure that the prosthetics will take. After that, you'll simply need to take it easy for a few weeks or so - no heavy lifting or running too fast." He gave me a smile before walking back to the door. "I'll leave you to it." He said before exiting, shutting the door behind him.

As soon as the doctor was gone, Ratchet was almost immediately upon me, inspecting the prosthetics from every angle muttering compliments and complaints about the engineering and construction of my legs while Aela rolled her eyes and made her way to the head of the bed, handing me a card.

"Here." She said quietly, though louder than the muttering that was coming from Jistok at the end of the bed. "A little something from myself and Lily…"

I opened the card and smiled. "Not my idea…" She muttered under her breath in slight embarrassment at the card.

The front was a Varren, a thermometer stuck in it's mouth and an icepack on it's head with the words 'Feeling Ruff?' in bold lettering. I opened the card and discovered a short, pre-written message telling me to get better soon, followed by Lily's billowing signature and Aela's scratchier one.

"Thanks Aela." I said, smiling warmly as I wrapped her in a quick hug before letting her go. "I hate to ask how much these cost Victus." I said, turning to the Turian in question.

"The Matriarch agreed to foot the bill. I may owe her, but not that much." He said with a slight chuckle. "Since we weren't paying, we decided to get you some of the best prosthetics around."

"Anything to get back at the old fish." Aela said with a chuckle, causing the rest of us (bar Ratchet who was still busy going over my legs) to laugh with her.

The conversation had turned to the future after that, myself and Victus discussing the things that I could do to help around the Nest once I was properly recovered, Aela throwing in the odd suggestion, but mainly being comfortable to just listen. Eventually, Jistok had contributed too, saying that there was always going to be a need for help in the garage. Victus wanted to make more use of me than having another mechanic or an engineer on hand, and noted that Ratchet had said I knew how to fight.

"We could always do with more security." The Crow said, "Especially for our supply teams." He said, raising a taloned hand to stroke his chin in thought. "There's no need for you to rush into a decision just yet." With the way he was eyeing me up though I doubted that he was merely concerned for me, as opposed to those at the Nest who looked up to him. Which was everyone there.

I nodded as I mulled over the thoughts that were running around my head.

Although it hadn't been said directly, almost everyone who was staying at the Nest was essentially a mercenary. Maybe not one who worked for those in the big leagues, but there were the signs of a smaller group. For instance, the armed guards patrolling and standing station at the entrances to the compound, as well as the jobs that a lot of the security seemed to get.

Sure, there were people who did other stuff at the Nest, but apart from cooking, cleaning and a teacher who was working at a nearby school, almost everyone was a medic, a mechanic or a fighter.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't see any of the shadier stuff that most merc groups tended towards in the games - stuff like running sand, slaving, gun running and other… less reputable means of incomes, but that's where all the signs were pointing to.

The doctor opened the door and walked back in, carrying a tray of food and all but ordering the others to leave so that I could eat and rest before my therapy session the next day. I hadn't even noticed that the sun had started to set in the horizon, the orange light of the dying day reflecting off most of the buildings facing me, giving me a rather gorgeous view in its own right.

We gave each other parting words, and I told Victus that I would think about what I wanted to do around the Nest, and get back to him when I'd made a decision, before turning to the steaming food in front of me, devouring most of it before the good doctor had even finished telling me just what it was.

Apparently, it was a popular human dish that featured a number of different alien cuisines, including an Asari style seafood, Human style pasta, Turian style meat cutlets and Batarian bread to mop up the sauce. All in all… it was really nice, they way that the different cultures of spices and foods played off of one another and came together to make something actually pretty delicious.

When the doctor said a 'popular human food', though, I imagined you'd only be able to get something anywhere like this on a homeworld, the Citadel, or any other planet affluent enough to enjoy a mingling of culture such as Bekenstein.

It wasn't long after I'd eaten that drowsiness from the exhaustion of surgery came across me and I promptly fell asleep, finally getting the rest that my body needed.

The next few days fell into routine. I would wake early enough, and be taken through the hospital by wheelchair to a dedicated physiotherapy wing after having some anti-rejection hormones taken with breakfast, where I would go through my new range of motion, assisted by some horizontal bars that I used to steady myself less and less as the week progressed.

Stretches and leg exercises were practically endless as I got used to my new range of motion and the strength in my legs (mainly my thighs) improved and I familiarised myself with my new limits, which were pretty high. Towards the end of my stay in the hospital they began to put me on a treadmill to see not only how fit I'd managed to stay in the few months that had been forcibly sedentary, and how well my brain had adapted to my new legs.

By the end of the second week that I'd been in this universe, I had been discharged from hospital. I wasn't quite as fit - bodily, at least - as I'd ever been, though on threat of pain and possible rejection syndrome I'd been forced to take it easy over the next couple of weeks, being forced to use a cane to at least partially support my weight for the first few days on my own.

I'd have to take rejection suppressants until it was safe to say that my body had taken to the cybernetics - which could be never - as well as having regular physiotherapy sessions to improve my motor functions and get back to a state of using my legs with natural ease.

The feeling of giddiness that had slowly been building up over the past week crested when I returned back to the Nest in the skycar with Aela and Victus.

That euphoria vanished the second I stepped out of the skycar.

Standing not too far from where I'd entered the Nest a couple of weeks earlier, same shuttle car touched down behind her, was the Matriarch.

My smile had vanished from my face, being replaced by a slight scowl as I narrowed my eyes slightly at her appearance. I heaved a sigh before heading over to her, Victus ambling not too far behind me while Aela took off again to return the skycar to its place in the shuttlebay.

"Matriarch." Victus greeted from behind me, his voice terse. "If I'd known you would be coming I would have gone to collect Greg earlier in the day." His words were polite, but there was a subtle growl hidden in the subharmonics that gave off a very _im_ polite tone, like he couldn't care less if she'd told anyone of her impending arrival or not.

"It's quite alright, Victus. I wanted to speak with the man in question myself." She replied smoothly, either not noticing or ignoring the subtle tones of hostility Victus was giving off. "If you please." Victus made a gruff noise and then shuffled his way past us and into the compound proper. "Walk with me?"

The Matriarch turned and began to walk through the compound, towards a garden area where some of the food used in the kitchens was grown. I followed dutifully, but kept my distance from her and both of her followers that I could hear a few meters behind us. The garden was much more than just a kitchen garden. There were varieties of flowers that I hadn't seen on Earth, brilliant colours and smells permeating the air. A small orchard held a few large fruit-bearing trees with a bench below the branches that faced the setting sun.

It was a nice sight, and a comfortable spot.

That bench had been where I'd properly broken down first. It reminded me too much of home, too much of my old life, and so while I had sat on it, watching the sun drop below the horizon I'd felt the first tears falling down my face until I was silently sobbing in the twilight. I'd managed to calm myself eventually… but it had long since turned night when I'd shuddered a steadier breath and composed myself enough to face other people.

Perhaps she had chosen this spot for that exact reason. I was sure that she had someone watching me from a distance, which made me feel paranoid about feeling paranoid.

The Matriarch stood in front of the bench as I came around the other side before gesturing to sit as she did so herself, her cronies leaning against a tree a few meters away.

"This is likely going to be the last time that we have any contact with one another." She said, a sad smile playing its way onto her face. The words didn't sound sincere enough, they were more rehearsed than anything else and so I found myself not believing anything she was saying. "I'm glad to see that you've recovered well from your surgery though."

"Thanks." I nodded respectfully, though I didn't reciprocate her smile.

"It would be unseemly for a Matriarch such as myself to be seen with a human of your… disposition." She continued after a short moment. "I believe that you will follow the few rules I have set for you, but just so that we are clear:" She paused for a second, taking a breath before her face darkened. "If you ever go near Shepard, or the Chosen-One, you will find yourself dead before you even realise it."

It took me a second to recover from the swift mood change. "What if there's a chance encounter?" I asked reasonably.

"Then you will interact with them as little as possible." She countered, her face still portraying the severity of the consequences should I not heed her warning. "You will not be allowed to interfere with either of their paths, but if you should happen to come across them you will get away from them as quickly as possible. I'm sure you're capable enough of figuring out just what will happen elsewise."

Well, at least that confirms that there are others like me, if only the one. But worse than that, if those few affected by the Matriarch's pastimes do anything, Shepard could be turned into barely more than a puppet controlled by the Asari bitch sat next to me.

"Of course." I said simply in reply.

"In that case, I shall be taking my leave. I hope you settle nicely here, Greg." Her expression turned benign once again as she stood. I too stood, in respect for the powerful biotic beside me, the servos in my joints whirring as they aided my movement.

And just like that, she was gone.

 _Good riddance._ I thought to myself. If she thought for one second that I would let that scheming whore of a Matriarch get her claws into someone as important as Shepard, she would have another thing coming.

In a serendipitous moment, the place where I'd collapsed in this universe also became the place where I steeled my resolve.

Resolution in place, I stood once again, and headed back into the heart of the compound, looking for Victus. If he needed 'Security', that was something I was sure that I could learn to provide.

* * *

 **Reviews:**

Marcusss: The story will go by the same rules as AR, and by and large the timeline will be identical so it's more of a spin-off story than a fanfiction, although I do have my own plans and ideas for some of the characters so there may be a few differences.

Menschenblut: I'm planning on focusing more on the 'insertees' in the furture, so hopefully there'll be more of that to come :) There are going to be similarities and little 'easter eggs' for everyone to find which I'm hoping will help to turn the story into a real part of the ARverse. Thanks for all the compliments, I aspire to continue to put out work of similar calibre!

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 **Edit:** Just a few small changes to make the story flow a little better :)


	3. Ch 3: Preparation

**Act 1:Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Preparation**

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Grunting, I straightened myself as much as I could, driving my legs up as I finished the final set of squats I was doing.

"Impressive, even for a species with highly developed leg muscles." Ratchet commented as he sipped from a bottle of a popular sports drink called Tupari. "Although only needing to train half your legs makes it less so." He joked.

"Yeah well, I don't think I've pushed myself quite this hard before." I replied as I stretched out my legs, my thighs burning slightly after the intensity of the workout. I sat down on the weight bench next to me to rest my legs as Ratchet tossed me a bottle of water. I'd tried Tupari… but it tasted like piss water, and I preferred the non-flavour of nice, cold water over that stuff.

"Are you sure you don't want to come into engineering?" Jistok asked for the thousandth time. "It'd be a lot safer."

Safe, sure, but safe wouldn't help me survive the reapers, or let me help Shepard. "I'm sure." I said, rolling my eyes at him as I did so. "I'm not as good as you or Clank at that stuff, and I can't sit on my ass all day. This is what I'm doing."

I grabbed my cane, especially thankful for it now that I'd just finished exercising. My legs were acting more like jelly and less like the solid mass of metal and muscle that they were. The soft pad of my footsteps as I crossed the gym mats was accompanied by the hiss and shift of hydraulics, barely audible over my plodding.

Almost a month. That's how long I'd been here.

Sure, the first couple of weeks had essentially been stuck in surgery or recuperating from said surgery, but it had almost been a month since I'd been thrown into this wreck of a universe. Two weeks since I'd last seen the Matriarch.

I'd told Victus of my decision barely ten minutes after the Asari had left, and had promptly spent almost all of my time either exercising, doing weapons training or going through the different katas ingrained into my muscle memory over thirteen years of practice.

It was more than a little awkward figuring out how the kicks would differ from before, but they were basically the same. The only real difference was that they felt like they were more powerful and I had an even longer reach than I had before. Fully extended, the prosthetics were longer than my biological legs had been because of the double joint system which gave me some extra power.

I'd had breaks enforced upon me by Ratchet, and Victus had given me my first pay early so that I could go out and get some necessities. Things like clothes and an omnitool... both of which were prohibitively expensive. Since we'd gone to get the 'tool first, I was expecting something of the value that smartphones had been. And I was right… if you added another zero to the figure you're thinking of.

The same was true for most of the clothes, although I was told that it was actually just because of the planet we were on, and not because the items had the value they were being sold for.

That's Bekenstein for you. It's what happens when the rich gather in one place.

Learning how to use the omni tool wasn't too difficult, thankfully, and I was spared most of the embarrassment that comes with being completely unused to something due to the cover of being mind-raped by an 'Ardat-yakshi'.

I headed back to the room I shared with another human called Tom. He was a nice enough guy, not as tall as I was, but wider than me. Initially he'd been a bit awkward, acknowledging my presence, and giving me glances every so often, but not daring to make conversation - all but shooting down the attempts that I made to do so with small talk.

It had taken a few days before he started to warm up to me, coming to sit with myself and Ratchet if we happened to go on our lunch breaks at the same time. He used to be an Alliance combat medic before he left for a more "exciting" lifestyle. While the Nest had been pleasant, for the most part at least, it hadn't been what I'd call exciting, exactly.

I grabbed the towel thrown haphazardly onto my bed earlier in the day and strolled across the hall to one of the communal bathrooms that the compound had, letting the warm water fall across my skin and feeling the tension in my muscles slowly disappear.

I must have stood like that for ten minutes or so before I remembered what I was doing, quickly lathering myself up and washing off before wrapping the towel around myself and crossing the hall again.

Just as I was about to enter my room, the door opened, revealing Tom and a Turian called Sibus as they were leaving. Tom smiled and stood back to let me pass while Sibus stared at me with a look of icy indifference. He'd been one of the Turians to corner me when I'd first arrived, and while both Victus and Tom had gotten them to back off, it had taken an entire month before my presence wasn't met with open hostility though there were still warning glares constantly thrown my way.

Muttering my thanks as I passed quickly, I heard a muted thud before a flanging voice coughed up.

"Greg, if you are to be going on the job tomorrow, you'll need your armour fitted. Be at the armoury as soon as possible and someone will get you sorted." Sibus pointedly didn't meet my gaze while he spoke, instead choosing to look somewhere above my head so that if he were to look at me, he'd be looking down his nose.

"Thank you." I said in return politely, nodding my head at him as he left. Tom gave me a smile before closing the door behind him, the door automatically locking itself. I grabbed some clean clothes, throwing them on after drying myself enough to not have anything get stuck to my body before heading back out of my room, the door unlocking just long enough to let me out.

The 'job' was being security at a fundraiser for some company or another. I didn't really care about the particulars, and it didn't seem like the others really did either, although that wasn't surprising considering that this type of job normally meant babysitting drunk rich assholes while they threatened to sue you for every penny you were worth for doing your job.

I huffed a sigh as I reached the armoury. Daesh, another Salarian, was the armoursmith for the Nest. He turned to greet me as I strode in, already bringing his omnitool up and scanning for measurements.

"Ah, new recruit. Nice to see you're finally flying the coop." He commented before turning and whizzing around his workshop, pieces of hardware flying left right and center, with the occasional pause as he pulled the right piece of various sized piles of similar-looking pieces.

He returned after a couple of minutes, ordering me to stand still and raise my arms in a 't' pose while he double checked his measurements with the plates he'd picked out, placing individual plates around my body to make sure they were of the right size before disappearing once again.

"Need to attach plates to undersuit." He explained, "Will take some time. Should be done by this evening."

I nodded my thanks and bade him farewell as I checked the time on my omnitool, realising I had a little while before my next physiotherapy session. I decided to grab some food from the cafeteria - nothing fancier than a Varren steak burger, but it renewed some of the energy that I spent over the course of the day, before heading across the Nest to get to the small clinic where my physiotherapy sessions took place.

The therapy session began with a series of tests to see how well I was adapting to the cybernetics, followed by some stretches to test the range of motion, a little adjustment to the cybernetics themselves as well as another tutored maintenance session to make sure that I properly knew how to keep the myomer bundles in good condition, not to mention the servos and electronics as well as the hydraulic system.

I'd just finished putting the covers back on the artificial muscles when Jistok and Sugorn filed into the clinic, a heavy clunk opposing the quiet swish as the plates locking into place was accompanied by the opening automatic door.

"Your armour is ready." Sugorn said with a look of mild disdain on his face.

"Oh, thanks, I wasn't expecting it to be done so soon." Which was the truth. It had only been a couple of hours, three at most since I'd been to the armoury and spoken to Daesh.

"Yes, well some of us are actually capable and get things done." Sugorn retorted, half murmured at me whilst peering down at me with his arms folded across his chest.

"Uhuh." I said, rolling my eyes at the Salarian and largely ignoring him as I turned to Jistok. "How's the workshop?"

"Busy. We haven't had much work recently, which is probably the reason that you're heading out tomorrow and not waiting for another week or so to make sure you've adjusted."

"Yeah well, I would've tried to get out and do something soon anyway. Cabin fever is a terrible thing Ratchet." Sugorn was looking at me with a mixture of what I assumed to be fury and apathy as his eye almost visibly twitched at being ignored.

"Any idea what the job is?" Jistok inquired, tilting his head curiously.

"Well, all I've heard is that we're gonna be bodyguarding some big wigs at a fundraiser across the continent. Shouldn't be any trouble, but I suspect it's where most of the money for this place comes from." I said casually.

In truth, it was probably a fair assumption. Of course, being security for the upper echelons of society had its benefits, but it would be unfair to say that the Nest didn't have any other methods of income.

For example, the garage where Jistok and Clank worked was also somewhere that people could come to get various items fixed, such as private shuttles, sky cars and speeder bikes. The clinic too, provided basic services for people who didn't need serious treatment that would be provided at the hospital and it acted as a pharmacy, stocking various drugs and other medicinal substances that could be bought over the counter. There were probably other things being sold from there too, if the number of rich kids coming and going on a weekly basis was anything to go by.

I finished up sorting my legs out before standing up.

"So you'll get paid a lot for not doing much." Ratchet supplied with a wry smile on his face.

"Yeah, pretty much." I replied, smiling widely at Sugorn who was now visibly bubbling with ire.

Ratchet merely guffawed and moved back, following me out of the clinic and back across the Nest before saying his farewell as he spotted Clank entering the workshop.

Entering the armoury for the second time in a day, I spotted Daesh tinkering with some weapons on a bench off to the side below a weapons rack with the armour counter on the other side of the room.

"Be with you in a moment." He said without lifting his gaze from whatever it was he was doing. It was a couple of minutes before he finally turned to face me. "Faulty weapon VI. Kept trying to re-zero weapon sights." He explained matter-of-factly with a shake of his head.

"I can see how that would be… problematic." I returned, a small smile on my face.

"Indeed." Daesh intoned deadpan, before he burst into action, practically leaping across the room as he went for my recently finished armour. "Took less time than expected, had to remind myself no need for complete greaves."

The suit was lying flat on the workbench, and was split into three sections. There were thigh plates, attached to what was basically the boxer brief version of an undersuit, while the torso armour was made of a series of segmented plates that would cover my stomach to allow for my body's range of motion, with a solid moulded plate for my chest, also attached to a separate undersuit mesh, which had unprotected sleeves, with the gauntlets and pauldrons lying either side of the armour on their respective sides.

The whole thing was a dark matte grey, almost to the point of being black, save for the undersuit which was an obsidian, and the gilded silver wings that spread boldly across the chest piece.

"I suppose this makes you an official member of the Wings of Thunder. Congratulations."

Well that confirmed it. It may call itself a 'security consultancy' or whatever more legitimate sounding name it called itself, but I was now part of a merc group.

Surprisingly, that thought didn't make me hate myself as much as I thought it would. I don't think I'd have been quite so calm about being coerced into one of the big three however, since all of which were more like criminal organisations. Not at all like most of the pmc's and paramilitaries that were more in line for mercenaries of the twenty first century.

"Thanks." I murmured before clearing my throat and looking Daesh in the eye. "Is there anywhere that I can try it on?"

He nodded and picked up the pieces of the suit, waving me to follow him as he moved into a back room that was the locker room for all the armour sets of the security teams. He stopped in front of one of the lockers and waved his omnitool in front of it causing it to open.

"This is your locker, I'll key it to your omnitool once we know that everything fits." He paused to place everything in the locker so he could properly face me. "You've got medium plate armour there, with a barrier harness for the kinetic shielding and a ballistic fibre under mesh. It's nothing fancy, but it will protect you. All that's left for you to pick up is a helmet, but that can wait for the moment." As he spoke, Daesh pointed out the different features of the armour before patting me on the shoulder and telling me to come and find him once the armour was on.

I waited until he'd left the room and the door had shut behind him before stripping down to my underwear and beginning the process of putting my armour on.

The armoured boxers were slightly awkward to put on, but after a bit of wriggling, I'd found the right way to slide my legs through, which was to actually adjust the tightness of the armour plates with the buckles on the inside of the legs and slackening the belt of the groin guard.

After tightening the plates again and making sure they were secure, I moved on to the rest of the armour. Putting on the torso portion with relative ease, letting the segmented plates cover my unprotected body before moving onto the arms, sliding the pauldrons on over my arms and tightening them before moving onto the gauntlets.

When it was all on me and secure I made to leave the locker room, but caught myself in a bathroom mirror. I looked… well I thought the look suited me, if only in my own opinion.

Not quite the Knight in shining armour, but there was a certain appeal to it.

Once I managed to stop staring at myself in the mirror I strode out to Daesh in the armoury proper, where I found him conversing with Sibus, Berrilius (who everyone called Blueberry on account of his clan markings, which were the same blue markings that Garrus had, and Tom.

Tom smiled as I entered, giving me a look of approval as he gave me a once over. Sibus saw Tom move out of the corner of his eye and turned to face me, his apathy turning into appreciation as he too saw me in my new garb. Berrilius was the last to turn, although it was mostly because he'd been conversing at length with Daesh about getting a shipment of new, upgraded weapons to the standard fair that we were currently equipped with.

"Not a bad look Greg." Sibus commented quietly as I padded over to them. "I hope you're able to wield a weapon in that armour."

"Well, I've been catching up with my training, but until I see some actual combat I'll be greener than the grass in the garden." I joked, making Tom chuckle lightly, although Sibus just looked at me in confusion.

"We call unblooded greenhornes." Tom supplied after sparing a glance at Sibus. "Its a human thing."

"Ah." He said, flaring his mandibles in what I assumed to be a small smile. It certainly looked like one anyway.

Finally, Daesh and Blueberry were finished with their conversation, but I was unsure of the result. I assumed though that until we were pulling in the numbers that we wouldn't be getting any upgraded gear.

"Berrilius." I nodded in greeting to which he returned, if a little slowly. "Daesh, is there a helmet for me?"

The Salarian nodded once, turning and striding over to the stash of spares. He picked up a few, muttering something as he compared them, looking over in my direction a few times before finalising his selection. It was a simple affair, an almost exact match to what I can remember the standard merc helmets looking like, but that was to be expected.

"Not a bad look, but wait until you've got some cash and you can start getting your own stuff in." Tom said with a gleam in his eye. "We're gonna have a little bonding session tonight over food, meet us at the caf at seven."

I nodded my agreement, not really sure if I'd be completely welcome there, but deciding not to voice my concerns as I tried on the helmet that Daesh had given me and the three left the armoury.

As soon as the helmet was on the VI installed in the armour powered up the HUD and my vision lit up with information as it loaded up before being compressed into widgets around the edge, as non-invasive as possible.

"Just need to sync omnitool with armour's VI and then complete a systems check." Daesh said after a couple moments, before he grabbed my arm, activated my omnitool and began the syncing process. It didn't take too long, a few mere moments, and then a quiet chime rang in my ear signalling it was complete.

After that was finished, Daesh ran his own omnitool over and around the armour, observing a couple of the panels that were raised above his forearm as he did so. That took a couple of minutes before he was happy that all the systems were in working condition. At which point he let me change back out of the armour and be on my way.

It took me a good fifteen minutes or so to get out of the armour and changed again and I strode past Daesh thanking him for his work once it had been put away in my locker and keyed shut.

In the distance, the sun was beginning to set, so I checked the time on my 'tool and saw I had about an hour and a half or so to kill before I was supposed to meet the rest of the team at the cafeteria. I turned and headed to the workshop, where I found Clank hefting half a skycar into a cradle to be worked on, Ratchet fiddling with the engine block on a worktop.

The car's chassis looked pretty banged up and I wondered just how it was that someone managed to mess their ride up so spectacularly.

"Someone did a number on themselves by the looks of it." I said, alerting the two mechanics to my presence.

Jistok practically jumped out of his skin in comparison to Clank's reaction. His indifferent grunt the only sign that he heard me at all as he started removing dents from the ruined skycar.

"Someone removed the limiter from the VI." Ratchet started explaining. "The engine couldn't handle the stupid stunts that they were obviously trying to pull at ridiculous speeds." He took a moment to shake his head before continuing. "G forces wrecked most of the systems and they crash landed outside the city. Had to get a tow shuttle just to get the damn thing here."

"Lemme guess. Rich kid, new car and daddy's permission?" I asked sarcastically. That could apply to roughly a fifth of the planet's population.

"Most likely, though surprisingly it was an Asari who called for pickup." That was odd. Not unheard of, for sure, but odd on a planet whose elite were almost entirely human, with the occasional Council species member thrown in.

"One of the thirty?"

"Could be on this dump." Clank grunted. "Unlikely though."

I hummed in agreement. Unless they were an exile from their house, a core member of one of the thirty Asari houses wouldn't risk being reprimanded by the house matriarch for doing something so stupid. It was too open, too little politics were concerned and so it would be too easy for the other houses to prey upon that member, weakening the house - if only temporarily.

"She could be an exile? A young maiden perhaps? Or she could've had nothing to do with the accident and is getting a free skycar for her trouble?" I spitballed at the two mechanics as they each worked on their tasks.

"Any of those are possible, but its not our policy to ask who people are beyond ID and contact information." Ratchet explained. "Get more business when people aren't afraid of prying eyes." I nodded mutely in agreement. "Besides, if its not her vehicle, client may not come to collect it. In which case we will have another car for the people here."

An errant thought crossed my mind. I had memories of driving a car, obviously there were mixed emotions behind it, but I used to be able to. How hard could it be to drive one in the future?

"D'you reckon I could get Aela to teach me how to drive?" Clank chuckled while Ratchet shook his head lightly, a smile on his face at my question.

"I'm sure she could be persuaded to help you out." Jistok said slyly. The conversation carried on like that until it was time for me to leave, but it was just idle chit-chat that didn't distract the mechanics too much from their job aside from the occasional bantering.

I arrived a couple minutes late to the cafeteria, spotting the team for tomorrow already sat on one of the longer tables, a seat vacant besides Tom, presumably for myself. I grabbed a plate of food, giving my thanks to the chef before heading over and taking the spare seat.

"Ah, Greg, you made it." Tom remarked, turning to me as he took a pause from his conversation to greet me. "You know Sibus and Berrilius. This is Jun Brevek." he waved his hand to a Salarian opposite him as I greeted those around me. He had slightly green skin and the horns on his head were slightly mottled. He greeted me with a nod of his head and a quick 'hello'.

"He's our techie. Then there's James, N6. He couldn't quite make it to the top rung, but he's still better than most of us here." James was a bushy-bearded bear of a man. He sort of reminded me of Vega with the way that his shirt struggled to contain all of his muscles in a way that could have been slightly comical if not for the fact that his eyes were like a hawk's. He said nothing, merely nodded his head once and went back to eating while the introductions continued.

"There's Guy and Ben Peterson, those brothers are our heavies, so they're packing detpacks, launchers, all sorts of stuff." The two brothers were twins, although it was easy to tell which was which as Guy was practically a stick with how wiry his body was and he had burn marks on his face. Ben on the other hand had more of an athletic physique, and his cropped hair had a streak of dyed red running through it.

"Our biotic support is there at the end of the table, you got Valeia, former commando. She doesn't like to talk about her past, so don't ask." The first Asari I was introduced to gave me a small smile and offered her hand to shake, which I did. It was slightly strange that she wanted to shake hands like that, but being warned, I didn't question it. Valeia was a slightly purple Asari, with her facial tattoos a deep burgundy that framed her face nicely.

"And finally Sel'ama. You should probably steer clear of her." The second Asari gave me more of a flirtatious smile, if only indicated by her body language. Her skin was a nice teal as opposed to Valeia. Both Asari were short, and I could tell that even though we were all seated, but Sel'ama was the slightly shorter of the two.

"Why's that? She a hardass or something?" I asked, curious. The Asari was rather easy on the eyes once I got past the tentacles on the top of her head, but I wouldn't do anything quite so stupid as sleeping with her since that would get us both killed.

"God no, she's just at that age where she's likely to jump on any guy and start draining their balls." He chuckled, the others around us laughing at the joke. "But that would end pretty badly for you." He said, the jovial mood dampening slightly.

"Yeah… No sex with fish or I'll die."

The conversation turned into more of a bonding session after that. I stayed fairly quiet as the others regaled us with stories of past adventures, each one trying to outdo the others. Occasionally a more recent story would be told, with those who were there for that particular outing arguing the finer details as some of the embellishments got too exaggerated as the teller tried to put themselves in a more positive light. Possibly the only person who supposedly did some amazing things was James as no one argued with him about the finer points, even when more than one of the team had been with him on a job.

We sat there talking until the rest of the cafeteria had filled and emptied again, the cleaning staff in the compound coming in to work their magic.

"Right everyone, time for some rest. We've got to be up early tomorrow to get around the world for this gig." Tom said. He seemed like the defacto leader of the team, although that was probably because he was also the medic, and that was someone you didn't want to annoy if you got hit.

One by one we stood, taking our dirty dishes to the drop point before heading our separate ways back to our rooms.

Quickly getting ready for bed I was struck by the thought that someday soon, I too would have a story or two that I could tell. And that someday soon, I would need to kill. Perhaps for my own survival, perhaps for someone else's. I didn't know if I was ready to.

As I lay in bed, sleep beginning to drift over me I knew that I needed to prepare myself. I just hoped I was ready when the time came.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for all the support guys, it's really encouraging that people seem to be liking the story so far, a word of warning though, updates are likely to become sporadic over the next few weeks as I knuckle down and get on with uni work, which means that I'm doing upwards of 8 hours painting (amongst other things) per day, so... you have been warned.

See you next week!

* * *

 **Edit:** Another run through that should make everything flow a little better :)


	4. Ch 4: Sortie

**A/N:** Here we go! Chapter 4 is in on time and the story should start to pick up from here, so here's hoping you all enjoy it! I've got 5 and 6 in the works as we speak, so the story will continue on schedule!... for now anyway :)

* * *

 **Act 1: Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Sortie**

* * *

The sun hadn't risen when Tom woke me, his not-so-gentle shaking bringing me out of my dazed state and into a more alert one. We dressed quickly and quietly, travelling to the armoury where a few other members of the team were already gearing up, cups of what looked like coffee being clutched tightly by some of the groggier looking people.

There was a little bit of idle chitchat as people got their gear on, those who were confident enough to do so were gearing up single handed while they browsed on their omnitools. I, on the other hand, was just trying to get everything on in the right order.

Those who weren't there when me and Tom arrived had come shortly afterwards and by the time I was happy with how my armour was sitting over me, the others were all ready to go. We headed over to the weapon racks and picked up a load of standard fare Lancer rifles.

Breakfast was whisked down quickly, with most people simply picking up a bacon sandwich or something along those lines from the cafeteria before heading to our ride where Aela was waiting with a warning about 'getting crumbs in her nice clean shuttle.'

We were briefed by Victus as we took off - he wasn't there personally, but he was keyed into our comm frequency. The job was going to be easy, literally the only thing that we had to do over the course of the evening was to look professional and slightly menacing, keeping a watchful eye on the guests and making sure that nothing went awry.

What could go wrong, right?

"Victus didn't mention who it is we're working for did he?" I asked once Victus had finished his briefing and the radio had gone silent.

"Nah, but there's a reason why; the guy's an asshole. Officially, he's an art dealer. Unofficially he's a weapons dealer and smuggler, but no one can seem to pin anything on him. Victus doesn't really want to break bread with him, but he's got credits, and that's something that we need a bit more desperately now that you're here." Sibus informed me. "Guy's name is Donovan Hock. You should avoid him if you can."

Hock? Really? Memories of playing through Kasumi's DLC flashed through my head, and I sighed heavily as I went over what sort of thing I might expect.

"So much for this being a simple job." I muttered under my breath.

When we touched down an hour later we were greeted, thankfully, by Hock's head of security as opposed to Hock himself. We were simply there to bolster them, and help them keep the mansion and the grounds covered. It was unspoken, but apparently something had gotten Hock extra jumpy and he needed more security.

We were led around the mansion first, shown where the event would be taking place, where guests would and wouldn't be allowed to go, where security was based, that sort of thing. I pretty much knew all of it anyway since I'd technically been here before, but it was still a good idea to familiarise myself with the location.

The entrance hall where you meet Hock in-game was just a staging area where the guests would gather before being led further into the mansion, into what was essentially a small courtyard, that had a dining room to one side where round tables were being prepared with a seating arrangement, a stage on the far side of the hall. Directly opposite the dining hall would be where the guests would mingle in a large high ceilinged room that overlooked the grounds of the estate.

"I don't like this." Blueberry said to us as we were shown around the grounds, as well as giving us areas to observe more keenly.

"Something's definitely up." I agreed. "He wouldn't need this much security for a fund raiser unless he was expecting something to happen.

"Jun, check the guestlist, see if there are any open bounties for anyone and who might be coming after them if there is anything. If there's nothing, assume it's competition for Hock's illicit activities unless there's evidence otherwise."

"What about governments? Would they want anyone coming here?" Ben suggested

"Almost certainly." Guy said back with a snort. "There's a ninety percent chance that every single person coming here is just as much of an ass as Hock himself. They're all going to be tied to him and his activities one way or another."

We didn't say anymore on the subject until we were led back into the mansion, where we were able to grab some food and a drink.

"I've got nothing." Jun said in defeat. "There are no standing bounties for anyone coming, but virtually everyone coming is wanted by one planet or another for _something_. There's the occasional pirate captain who'll be here, but I doubt that they'll be causing trouble."

"So anyone could be the one to bring trouble here? What about Hock himself, have you checked his profile yet?" Valeia asked.

"His was the first on my list." Jun replied. "There was nothing that suggested anyone would want to come after him."

"Nothing on record." James cut in, causing us to all look to him. "If he's done something to piss off someone bad enough they wouldn't put a bounty on him, they'd keep it all internal. That's the way that things are looking to me."

"So it could be anyone." Tom finished. "Great."

The next few hours were spent getting to know the patrol routes and the various protocols that Hock's security had in place. It was a fairly simple system, but that didn't mean it wasn't high tech. The protocol was a check-in every couple of minutes, a simple "All clear" message while the security patrolled around the estate, we'd report what we thought was suspicious and then a team would be dispatched to investigate. Simple.

It was supposed to be simple, anyway. And for a while, it was. The guests began to arrive in a steady trickle and before long, the room was filled with all manner of people. Each and every one of them fancying themselves to be in the upper echelons of society - no doubt because they stand there atop a pile of dead bodies and disposable henchmen.

I was on patrol with Berrilius when it all went tits up. The first sign that something was wrong was the lack of response from the control room. My heart began to race when Blueberry tried to get in contact with the others, only to find that we were cut off completely. Someone was in play and until we found out just who exactly it was, then we would be on the back foot.

We readied our weapons, as basic as they were, and activated our shield generators.

"Stay calm, Greg." Berrilius soothed, even though his posture was tense and I could see his helmet turning slowly as he watched the estate like a hawk. My own eyes were searching desperately when he spoke, and as I struggled to gain control of myself I began to recall the lessons that my Kung Fu instructor had taught me throughout the years. Breathe. Full, slow breaths. Open your vision, take notice of the sky, see the ground and both sides of you all at once. Open your ears, listen. Use all of your senses to experience the world around you.

As I followed his lessons my pulse began to slow considerably, so much so that Berrilius took a glance at me to make sure that I wasn't going to pass out. There was nothing that I could see out of the ordinary. Skycars flew in the distance, heading to and from the great city spires, flitting about like flies. A light breeze swept across the grounds and the lush garden rippled in its wake, the water features catching the sun's rays and- there!

As the light bounced off the water, there was a slight distortion, as though there was something transparent curving in front of it. "Identify!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, loud enough for the chinking of glass and the distant chatter of the guests to quieten momentarily. A part of me wondered if they wondered if someone was trying to crash the party, but most of me didn't care.

I was doing a job. Not only that, but my life could be on the line, and that was more important to me than the rest of the partygoers.

"Berrilius, distortion in front of the fountain, left side. They haven't moved." I informed him quietly, afraid of alerting any other intruders that we were onto them in case they had us surrounded, which was the likely scenario.

"I see it. I didn't think active camo was available yet." He responded equally as quietly, his voice terse as he strained to make the outline of whoever it was by the fountain.

I merely grunted my agreement. It wasn't available until the second game when they were just works of fiction, but who the hell knew what was different here? There was still an awfully long time to go before the events of the first game took place and I had to survive. No matter what. I wasn't gonna sit idly while everything around me burned to the ground.

It was probably a working prototype in any case… which meant a government was involved somehow.

For a short while, nothing moved. The distortion in front of the water was still there, barely moving as whoever it was began to fidget slightly, uncomfortable under our gaze.

"Whoever they are, they aren't going to cooperate." Berrilius remarked, his voice low.

I was about to reply when the faint sound of a footstep reached my ears. Being as tense as I was I snapped around, doing a complete one-eighty turn in less time than it took to blink. there were two of them behind us, their outlines clearly visible now that they were so close.

Both had frozen at my movement instead of doing what they should have, and gone for the kill. Their hesitation meant I had time to react. "Fire!" I cried as I brought my rifle up to bear on the attackers, one of whom was bringing his knife down in a vertical stab, trying to get the weak point of the crook in my neck.

Instead of firing my weapon, I let it continue upwards to block the strike before I spun around him, taking him in a hold as I fired at the second who was now upon Berrilius. The crack of automatic weapons fire tore through what a mere moment ago had been silence, and chaos broke loose as the sound of a shield shattering accompanied the spray of blood as my uncontrolled fire tore through the assailant's helmet.

Instead of listening to my command, Berrilius had reacted to my turning and stood in slight shock for a split second before shots coming from the grounds began to drain his shields at an alarming rate and he dove into cover, his weapon spitting Mass Effect propelled rounds simultaneously to my own.

He glanced back at me as he dropped into cover, and the now uncloaked recipient of my bullets had collapsed to the ground beside him. I was still holding my attacker, who had shaken off the surprise of being found out and was in full fighting mode.

An elbow to my armoured stomach had me release him, and he caught my weapon hand with a swift kick, causing me to drop the rifle with a clatter. I saw Berrilius firing at the enemy in the grounds, which I now learned was more than just one as several armoured figures had decloaked and were keeping Berrilius pinned.

Fortunately for us, we weren't alone against the mob that had caught us with our trousers down as the gunfire had drawn the attention of not only the rest of our squad, but also a large portion of Hock's own security which had been dispatched to deal with the intrusion now that it was known.

My own fight had become more intense as my knife wielding opponent had me at a disadvantage. They were obviously well trained, based on their chosen grip, and they were agile too, if their stance and the way they were bobbing and weaving around me were anything to go by.

I needed this fight to be over with.

As my opponent struck again and again, I continuously blocked their strikes, my armoured gauntlets protecting me from the otherwise bone-shattering blows, and the constant training I'd been doing since arriving here making me fast enough to keep up with their movements.

They were good, but they were sloppy. And after only the third strike, I had an opening.

Their fourth strike was more of a wild slash than anything else, but I managed to catch their arm and spin around and under it, holding their wrist in a tried and tested wrist-lock that disabled pretty much their entire body.

They dropped the knife almost as soon as I had them in the hold, their arm bending backwards to a painful degree. A side kick to the side of their knee and what had been muffled grunts of pain became a scream of agony as their leg collapsed, the ligaments in the knee torn in half by the force of my mechanical leg smashing down upon them. I let go of their arm as they fell to the floor, before punting their helmeted head with enough force to break the visor, they stopped both moving and screaming as my foot connected. I just hoped they weren't dead.

"Greg, Berrilius!" Sibus' flanged voice called out above the cacophony of gunfire that was slowly petering out as we began to repel the invading forces. By now I had done the sensible thing and dropped into cover, dragging the unconscious body of my opponent and propping them up against my cover. "Are you alright?" Sibus, Tom and James moved towards us, covering each other enough so that it was safe to move without risk of being gunned down by the now reinforced invaders.

"Yeah we're fine." Berrilius answered for the both of us. I began to replay the events of the past few seconds in my head over and over and over again. Not so much analysing what I had done, but cycling over gunning down that person, hearing their cry of pain as bullets tore through their shields and then their armour from such close range, hearing the huff of breath leave their body, the thud as they hit the floor before it began all over again.

I felt nauseous. I had just killed someone.

It was self defense, yes, but... It had still been someone, they had been alive. And now...

I felt someone's hand upon my shoulder. I looked up to find James' helmeted head staring back at me. I knew it was him because of the 6 scratched into his helmet, and the tally count on his pauldrons.

"You did good kid." He said simply, his slightly gruff voice somehow warm with pride. "I know where your head's at right now, but trust me on this. It gets easier."

"What if I don't want it to get easier?" I retorted. it was a dumb question. I had chosen to do this, I knew that I was going to have to do things like this from the start. I was in goddamn Mass Effect for Christ sake, it's not as though I was in a dream either. This was real, this was visceral. And the sooner that I understood that, the sooner I would be an asset to Shepard and to everyone around me instead of a liability.

"Look, Greg. I don't mean you have to enjoy killing, all I'm saying is that you need to stop thinking of them as you do yourself. As soon as they attack you, they are no longer people. they are targets." He paused for a moment as the gunfire around us intensified and he rose from cover before taking three concise bursts of fire, each aimed at a different target and dropping back down. "That's how it gets easier. Because you aren't shooting people, you're shooting targets."

I nodded to myself. That made a certain sort of sense when I thought about it. Distance yourself from the reality of extinguishing another life and they become a number, a statistic. I guess I'd better start a tally then.

I lifted my helmet and took a few gulps of fresh air before quickly retrieving my weapon from where it had fallen. I was going to need help getting over all this, when it was done... but for now, I had to help make sure we all survived this fight.

I rose out of cover as little as I could manage while still getting my rifle above the solid wall that was getting peppered with rounds, small chunks pinging off of armour and being flung through the air. As terrifying as it was, I was reminded of the times that I went paintballing as a kid. Spot a target, aim and fire. Short bursts to maintain accuracy. Next target.

A loud beeping rang in my ears as my shields went critical and I dropped back into cover as fast as I could, the snapping of bullets passing next to me sounding in my ears. From here I could hear the cries of pain, both on our side of the fight and theirs, the animalistic wails breaking over the gunfire. I rose once again, before ducking back immediately as a much larger chunk of wall was taken out, the stone fragments splashing over me.

"Sniper?" I asked James, who had ducked out of sight at the same time as me. His reply was a simple nod before he switched weapons, unfolding his own sniper rifle, popping out of cover and immediately ducking down again before another large chunk of stone was taken out of the wall. As soon as the bullet had hit the wall, he was up, aiming and firing in one single smooth motion. It was so clean that when he ducked back down again he folded his sniper and placed it back in its mag holster, before withdrawing his knife and scratching another tally into his armour.

"He's gone." And with that, the fight resumed.

It wasn't too much longer before the firefight was over. With the high ground, and solid cover to get behind, our team combined with the mansion's security had managed to hold out against the attackers, and in the case of a couple squads of Hock's men, go out and flank the invaders that opened them up to be cut down. Currently security were rounding up the dead, taking care not to try and take a look at what sort of gear they had on them as one curious soldier lost a hand to a small explosion that was detonated when he attempted to open up the armour for a look inside.

The Wings were huddled together, with the one opponent that had been taken down in a non-lethal manner. Through the broken visor I could see that they were an Asari, her frame a similar size to my own which was considered unusual by Asari standards, not just from the appearance of Valeia and Sel'ama, but also from their own confirmations.

The relief that not only had we survived the fight but that we had also successfully done our job was palpable. Whatever it was that was supposed to happen we had stopped, for now at least. Hopefully our unconscious Asari friend would be able to shed some light on the situation.

Tom had checked us all for wounds, of which there were few. And even then, they were thankfully mostly of the minor variety. Sibus had taken a shot to the shoulder during the fight, but it was easily treated with medigel, and Ben had taken a shot that had gone clean through his arm which too, was only a light injury for modern medicine. The rest of us were beaten and battered, our armour covered in dents and scratches, but we were otherwise unharmed.

Guy had gone to bring the sky car around so that we could 'resupply', but also so that we would be able to get the cuffed Asari somewhere where she wouldn't be shot by an overzealous security guard.

If we could get useful information out of her, and then give that to Hock, he'd be more inclined to give us a bonus payment, or it would encourage him to either spread word of the quality of our services, or consider us for other jobs that he might need doing. Perhaps even both. That was the theory, anyway, according to Blueberry.

Still, we grabbed some Tupari from the shuttle that we had brought for energy purposes, as well as some nutrient bars to get something solid into our stomachs as well. The Tupari was surprisingly not quite as bad as it was the last time I'd had some, it was refreshing even. But the nutrient bars were more like a miniature cement brick that someone was trying to pass off as a health food.

With all of the adrenaline coursing through my system having vanished, I was feeling rather weak, and despite my legs being slabs of metal, they still somehow managed to feel like jelly as I slid down and sat in the shuttle's doorway. I heard the shuttle floor creak slightly as an armoured figure sat down beside me, though I was too tired to turn my head to see who it was, instead I gnawed on my nutrient bar and washed it down with the Tupari.

"I should apologise." A flanging voice said from the armoured being besides me. At this, I turned to see who it was talking, only to find it was Berrilius.

"What for?" I asked. I mean sure, him and Sibus weren't the nicest people to me, but I understood why and I didn't have anything against them in particular.

"I misjudged you. I mistrusted you. You were an outsider, not only that, but you're young. And as much as I'm ashamed to admit it, part of the reason is that you are Human." I could tell that he wanted to go on, but I held up a hand to interrupt him.

"Berrilius, its ok. I get, I do. Especially with the whole 'outsider' thing. The Nest is a small community and everyone gets along with each other, every time someone new comes along it's going to be strange. Especially when that someone gets dropped off by some Asari bitch on a power trip." I stopped to take a breath and another swig of Tupari. "It's not like I wanted any of this to happen, but these are the cards I've been dealt, so I'm going to make the best of them. If that means that I have to suffer a little distrust, then so be it."

"Thank you." He paused for a moment before changing topic. "That was a good spot by the way. I didn't think you would be able to see anything before I did, what with the way you were panicking like that."

I chuckled lightly at that. "Yeah, I just remembered what I was always told to do in a fight. Breathe, see and hear." Berrilius chuckled with me, his mandibles flaring in what I assumed to be amusement.

"Well... It's certainly easy to remember."

"Easy to remember, sure. To do it properly? not so much. You got to breathe strong, deep breaths that use your entire lung. You got to expand your vision, not just focus in on a single point, you have to see everything. And that's the same with your hearing. You have to listen. If you can do all of that, then you should be able to go up against any number of opponents, and you should be able to win."

"Huh... Something to think about then." he said before getting up and finishing what was left of his own Tupari drink. "I owe you one Greg."

"Don't mention it. We're part of a team now." I said, feeling much better about today than I would have thought. The only thing bugging me right now is just how easily I was able to shrug off taking a life. Put it down to the heat of the moment or whatever else you like, I was uncomfortable with how little I cared.

"Hey Tom." I called, waving him over as I moved from my makeshift seat around the shuttle to speak more privately.

"What's up Greg… you hurt?" Tom asked, the medic in him making sure no one was hurt.

"No… I mean, my legs feel like jelly which is surprising, I know, but it's more to do with how I feel…" I chuckled at the current lack of strength in my body but the laughter died when I broached the subject.

"Ah. First time?" He asked in understanding. "It's never easy doing it, but… well. Whenever I have to kill someone I always tell myself that I'm helping people. There's lots of ways to help people. Take me for example. Sometimes, I might have to patch someone up, oversee some therapy, whatever it might be. Other times, in order to protect those who can't protect themselves, I have to take the danger out of the equation."

I nodded along as he was talking, he reminded me of a certain Salarian scientist, but he didn't need to know about that.

"You did pretty good for your first time though. Really well actually."

"Yeah… that's sort of what's got me worried… I started to panic about it straight after… like, I thought I was going into shock or something, but James got me to distance myself from it all… And it became… so _easy_."

"You worried about you getting used to it?" He questioned, to which the answer was a short nod. "Well, only one surefire way to not get used to it, and that's to keep that thought in your head. If you don't take joy from killing, then you'll stay on the right side of the line."

"Yeah... Yeah I guess you're right. Thanks." He was right of course. As long as I could see the necessity of it and I didn't lose myself to the madness, I would be ok. It was all going to be alright, in the end.

* * *

 **Reviews:**

Cuisinart8: Thanks very much for the kind words. In regards to Daesh... my lips are sealed :)

MenschenBlut: I know what you mean when you say you're drowning in schoolwork since my own schedule has gotten very busy lately as well. No spoilers for the Crow however! In terms of Greg's biotics, the idea is that the Matriarch herself doesn't know about them, since he was, (without revealing too much that hasn't already been said) initially brought into the AR verse without her planning it or her permission, meaning she didn't jumble his memories about, but the now dead Asari would have done that :) As for the Ardat Yakshi going after stronger prey... I was thinking in more terms as Morinth from ME2, she goes after interesting people as opposed to strong ones. You can think of the garden as an actual garden as opposed to a tradtional kitchen garden, although there would be some of the more expensive herbs and such grown in the Nest (which if i called the 'nest' was a mistake on my part). Im hoping that I'm setting everything up correctly, and Katkiller-V is being a huge help in that regard in terms of keeping my scrawling coherent enough to be a proper story :) Hopefully any grammatical mistakes will be eliminated once I get into the flow of writing more seriously. TTFN!


	5. Ch 5: R&R

**Author's note:**

Sorry for the little hiatus, but uni has ramped up a little bit and I had to put this on the backburner for a while. However, that being said I'm pretty pleased with how this chapter has turned out, so I hope you enjoy.

Thanks once again to Katkiller-V for Beta-ing the story and being generally awesome.

* * *

 **Act 1: Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Rest and Rehab**

* * *

The rest of the fundraiser passed by without incident - unless you count several of the guests objecting to the 'poor' treatment by some of Hock's security as they were herded into safe zones - mainly away from the windows and open areas so that they wouldn't be in the way of any of the so-called 'action'.

Their narcissistic drivel was driving me insane by the time that the guests had begun to leave, which was well into the night.

Jun had suggested that while we resume our patrols, it should include a trip to the shuttle once every hour and a half simply to check on the state of the Asari I had kicked into unconsciousness. Even though Tom had given her an anaesthetic that would keep her in her tranquil state for several more hours should she have woken up while we were on the job.

The Salarian had taken to analysing most of the gear with Hock's team and had asked to keep another of the bodies so that he could keep working on figuring out how to unlock the suit without it blowing up. With the promise of lucrative technology he would be able to sell for huge amounts of money on the black market, Hock agreed. This resulted in two corpses, one Human and another Asari, being loaded into the shuttle by Ben, Guy, Berrilius and yours truly.

Hock had wired the payment through, as well as a nice bonus for 'handling things so well', and even though we all piled into the shuttle with weary smiles on our faces, I couldn't shake the feeling that Hock was up to something. He knew something that we didn't about what was going on.

What was it that the Matriarch had said to me when we last spoke? Something about not going near Shepard or her chosen one… Well I have no idea who the chosen one is… but I doubt that she'd be attending something like this. And besides, if she were then surely the Matriarch would have eyes on her, and she would have known that we were going to be the security for the event?

No, it couldn't have been her. Perhaps Hock had shortchanged one of his customers? He certainly seemed the type, but then again, his 'activities' ran on word of mouth so if word got out that he had cheated someone out of a deal, he would be blacklisted.

So who was it?

Jun had handed the controls over to James, and most of the team were slumped over in a half asleep daze when he came and took a seat amongst them all. I would have joined them, but… I was far too awake now. My mind was buzzing with questions, none of which would be answered until the Asari woke up and told us and I wasn't sure I was going to trust whatever it was that came out of her mouth unless there was evidence to confirm it.

As quietly as I could, I tiptoed over everyone's legs and made my way to the cockpit where James was merely guiding the shuttle over the vast continent. We would still be an hour's flight or so, but it beat most other forms of travel so, it wasn't like I could complain or anything. I sat down in the co-pilot's chair, James' bulky form settling back slightly as he gave me a small nod as I joined him in the cockpit.

"Can't sleep?" He asked, the weariness that he must have been feeling invisible to my eyes.

I sighed tiredly. "No. There's too much for me to think about."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" James probed. He probably knew just what I was thinking, but it was good to have someone else to talk to about it.

"The ethics of violence I suppose." I sighed tiredly.

"Hey, there was nothing wrong with what you did today. If anything, you probably saved some of us out there. You've still got a long way to go, but for someone who can't remember more than a few weeks ago… you're pretty decent. Just don't let yourself go too far." James' reassuring words left me feeling slightly better about myself, but I didn't know how to respond so I let his words hang in the air for a little while.

Still, feeling reassured or not, there was still the matter of who had sent them, and why. My mind kept racing through the possibilities, but it kept coming up blank. I had no idea what it was that they were after... but maybe James had some kind of idea. "Who do you think they were anyway? And what were they trying to accomplish today? I mean... was Hock in on this? He knew something was going to happen, that much we know..."

"Don't worry about it now, get some rest and we'll interrogate the living one and find out what we can from the dead."

My mind span for another few minutes before I nodded my head and retreated back into the shuttle proper, finding a quiet spot to slide into before closing my eyes.

A jolt made me perk up, and I looked around with heavy breathing as I gathered my wits, realising that the shuttle was finally landing having made our way back to the Nest.

The morning sun shone in through the open doors as Victus was waiting for us outside along with a couple others, including Daesh, Clank and Jistok. The massive Krogan was immediately enlisted to haul the two dead onboard into the armoury, where Daesh and Jun followed to see what they could figure out about the gear. Behind them, the now conscious Asari, who'd had a damping collar secured on her person, was escorted through the Nest with a bag over her head by Sibus and Berrilius.

"Get some rest, everyone." Victus said once the Asari was out of earshot. "You must all need it after yesterday and there is work to be done." Those who weren't currently preoccupied by another task headed for the lockers to store their equipment before they would undoubtedly head for either the cafeteria or their dorms. "Greg, a moment, if you will."

I stayed behind to see what he wanted, waiting patiently as the others got out of earshot before he began. "You missed the debriefing earlier on, but from what I heard I can only assume that you've had previous combat training with what the squad are saying. You managed to see someone with active camouflage, and then proceeded to take down two attackers that had snuck up behind yourself and Berrilius."

Victus paused for a moment, gauging my posture which had turned cautious, then he sighed as he continued, "Greg, we can't find any records of you. Now that leaves a few possibilities. It could be, that you were a slave, or perhaps a duct rat at one time or another. It could also mean that you are involved in some very high level government business. Although that doesn't seem like the likelier option given that no agencies have come for you."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I merely stood there silently.

"So far, you have proven yourself to be trustworthy, Greg. But you must understand, that sort of combat awareness doesn't come naturally. I understand that you may have been trained in some sort of human martial art if people's observations are to be believed, and I am inclined to agree from the way that you handle yourself, but we need to know if you remember anything from before then."

"Victus, I swear, I don't know anything. It's been a month and everything before the night I woke up there is just… blank, like there's nothing before then." It wasn't the entire truth, but saying that I'd been brought into this dimension on accident by a crazy Matriarch and that I knew the fate of the galaxy probably wouldn't do me any favours. "It's like I've got muscle memory or something when it comes to that sort of thing... I just… know what to do."

"I believe I understand. I just thought you should know what we found, and to let you know that trust is hard earned, but easily lost." I merely nodded a weary reply as I set off for the armoury to store my gear and make my way to my bed. "Oh, Greg, before you go we'll be letting the Asari stew for a while before we make a move to interrogate her, soften her up a bit." I nodded my approval, unsure of what to make of the fact that Victus had essentially just told me that they were going to use one form of torture or another on the Asari, but that wasn't my problem. Out of sight, out of mind. I turned to leave again but Victus stopped me for a second time.

"One more thing. James told me what happened during the firefight. Your first kill?" I nodded my answer, my mouth drying up as I thought back to what had happened during the firefight. By and large I had managed to block it out of my thoughts, throwing myself into surviving the battle, and then into finishing the job, which had managed to tire me out enough that I had a fairly dreamless sleep on the shuttle. But now?

"As far as I know… Yeah." I swallowed, trying to wet my mouth enough to get the words out.

"Walk with me." Victus said as he waved me to follow him, turning to head inside as he did so. The quiet clink of his cane was accompanied by the clacking of my own metal feet as we walked through the compound. "How are you feeling about it?"

I didn't answer as I searched myself for an answer. Before, I'd had problems with disassociating myself from my emotions… especially during traumatic experiences. For example, after I broke up with my first girlfriend… well… I wasn't feeling many emotions at that point as I had managed to clamp the negative emotions down. The problem with that is that in doing so, I had also stopped myself from really feeling happy as well.

"I'm… not sure." I finally answered as we entered a room that had the feeling of an ancient shrine of sorts. The room was square, and while it had no walls, it still had a secluded feeling to it. "I knew that I would have to do something like that eventually. Just… perhaps not so soon."

"So you are okay with taking another life?" Victus pressed as he moved around the room lighting what appeared to be incense.

"Yes. No!" I took a breath before I started again. "I don't think I am." I managed to admit to myself. "I understand that it must be done sometimes, but I don't know if I have what it takes to be able to do it."

"And yet, here you are." That simple statement made me stop and think about it all. If I really didn't have it in me to do something like that, then I wouldn't be here. Arguably, none of us would have come back from that outing if I hadn't been able to do what I did.

"I suppose you're right." I ceded the point to Victus as he knelt on one side of a low, Japanese-style coffee table and offered me to sit opposite him.

"Of course I am." His flanging voice had an air of humour to it, even though his tone was soft. "What is it that you're afraid of, Greg. Is it yourself? Are you worried that you'll go too far, and that you'll reach a point of no return? Or perhaps you feel guilty about it, shameful maybe? Maybe even a combination?"

I stayed silent as I reflected upon his questions, trying to figure out how I really felt about the whole thing.

Logically, I had come to terms with it. Emotionally? I couldn't say, but at the moment it wasn't looking like I had.

"I don't see any guilt in your eyes, so fear would be a more logical conclusion, yes? If you aren't ready to take a life, then you will most certainly lose your own." Victus was right, of course. The galaxy was a big place and it was filled to the brim with people who wouldn't spare me a second glance if they had to kill me. And I would need to be able to do the same to them if I ever wanted to have a chance to live through to the reapers. "For now, think about what I said, but get some rest. You'll need it."

The next two days were a far more relaxed affair, spent largely as I had spent the previous couple of weeks - exercising, training, and chatting in the garage with Ratchet and Clank, helping out with whatever I could. I had spent some time in the morning in the armoury cleaning my weapon and armour with the rest of the team, but then most people had gone their separate ways to work on whatever it was they were working on. Jun and Daesh for example were fiddling about with the armour, checking and rechecking things on their omnitools, while Ben and Guy I found in the corner of the armoury workshop, looking like they were putting together some homemade bomb or something.

Throughout, there was the occasional scream of anger that was coming from the Asari who had been denied sleep and water while the rest of us rested up.

We weren't just at the Nest though, several other jobs had been done - although they weren't quite as glamorous, or as surprising as Hock's, they kept us busy for the most part. Often it would just be two or three of us picking up the work when our services were hired for escorting purposes, organising ourselves in a rota that stopped us from from wearing ourselves out now that we were expecting an attack.

At least, I was expecting an attack, the others… Not so much. I think James and Victus were taking appropriate measures, but since nothing had happened yet, they were becoming increasingly sceptical of anything happening.

The fact that nothing had happened only seemed to make me even more paranoid of our impending doom, something which didn't go unnoticed by the others as I had been approached by Ratchet and Clank in the cafeteria.

"You're not helping matters, Pyjak. You're putting the others on edge." Clank said as he sat opposite me, his tray of food stacked so high I could barely see him over it, the reinforced bench groaning slightly as it took his full weight.

"Sorry." I replied absently.

"Mm." was Clank's initial reply as he chewed on an enormous mouthful of food. "You need to relax, get into a few fights." He added, one eye on me as he hefted another mouthful into his stomach.

"Fights?" I asked incredulously. "Are you seriously suggesting that I put myself in danger in order to relax?"

"Of course! It is the best way to relieve tension." He gave a deep belly laugh as he raised a fist in exclamation.

"It would be good to get some more experience in fairness." I thought out loud.

"Hey, did you hear we might be getting new weapons in soon now that the payment from Hock's job has come through?" Jistok supplied, distracting me from my current chain of thoughts.

"I'd heard Berry talking to Daesh about it before the job, but I didn't think anything had come of that yet. You know what type of thing we'll be getting?"

"Mostly Turian and Asari made weapons." Ratchet told me. "Turian weapons solid enough, very durable and reliable, but Asari weapons always seem to have a tad more stopping power."

"Bah!" Clank cut in as he finished what was left on his plate. "If you want real stopping power, you go to the Krogan. We've always built the most powerful weapons." Jistok shook his head in disagreement to the fact, rolling his eyes as he did so.

"While true, unmodified Krogan weapons are often unstable. Look at the Claymore. The weapon is as likely to blow up on the trigger pull as it is to kill your enemy. No wonder most Krogan carry a spare."

"You're just jealous you Salarians can't make anything that'll put us down in one hit."

"Greg, sparring session over in the gym, the whole team is gonna be there, there might be a little competition in it if you're interested?" Sibus called out to me, interrupting the bickering of the two opposite me.

I looked at Clank who merely looked expectantly at me, and I gave a false sigh of exasperation before acquiescing with a smile.

"Sure, give me a few to get ready and I'll head over." I excused myself from the argument on which race made the best weapons, not wanting to side with anyone, since, if I remembered right, each race had their own pros and cons when it came to weapons manufacturing - although you could be sure that the Asari-made weapons were of very high quality considering their little prothean beacon that they kept hidden from the rest of the galaxy that helped them stay ahead of the curve.

Having left the cafeteria, I got changed into my gym gear which was a tank top and some loose fitting shorts before making my way over to where the rest of the team had already assembled and were warming up.

To my surprise, it wasn't just the security guys who were here. Almost everyone at the Nest had come to see and it was pretty obvious why when a couple of Turians went to a holo projector and a competition board was placed on the screen.

"I thought this was just for fun?" I asked aloud.

"Oh it is, but this way everyone gets a bit of entertainment too." Valeia answered with a smirk. "I even heard they had a betting pool going."

"I wonder if anyone put money on you, Rookie." Jun added, a not quite malicious smile on his own reptilian face.

"Bunch o' sociopaths." I muttered, just loud enough for them to hear which drew a few chuckles from the group.

I was just thankful that I wasn't on the mats first, so that I would get a chance to see how everyone fought. First up was Tom and Ben, and it was a fairly even matchup despite Ben being nearly a foot taller.

The rules were MMA style - KO, or tap out was a victory although the only rule about what you could and could not do was 'nothing that would do lasting damage' which worried me some.

Tom ended up winning the - as I would find out, relatively tame match - to the sound of cheering and booing as people who'd made their bets on the match either won or lost respectively. It was followed up by Sel'ama and Sibus, which to my lack of surprise Sel'ama won, as she used her biotics. Jun fought and won against Guy and Berrilius was defeated by James - who somewhat unsurprisingly looked leagues ahead of his opponent.

All too quickly, it was myself against Valeia. I could feel the anticipation rising in me like an electric current as we stepped into the makeshift 'ring'. She was very self-assured which didn't do much for my mentality other than let me know that she quite obviously knew how to handle herself, and would likely use whatever tactics she thought necessary to win.

Even if it was just a 'friendly' competition.

I closed my eyes and breathed. The crowd gathered had hushed in expectation as the match begun.

Open your sight. Breathe. You can beat her.

As soon as the match had begun; courtesy of a loud bell sound like a boxing match of old, Valeia had shot at me like a rocket, using her biotics to close the distance in a literal flash, crashing into me with the force of a speeding truck. I twisted in the air, righting myself as I flew backwards and managing to slow myself before I hit the gym wall hard enough to dent it.

It was on.

Adrenaline began to course through my body, reducing the pain to null as I pushed myself off the wall and stepped back into the ring.

I picked up the pace as I careened myself towards her, gaining speed as I went. When I neared her I feinted a powerful hook, which she interrupted by coming at me in a tournament style high round kick, forcing me to parry her biotically powered kick. I could feel the bruise already appearing on my forearm as I did so, and made it a mental note to simply dodge incoming attacks from biotics. And then the dance began. She would strike and I would block or barely get out of the way of her lightning quick strikes, leaving me no openings to counter attack.

It felt as though it must have been five minutes before she made a mistake. I won't lie, I had taken more than a few hits during that time, but none of them were severe enough to take me out of the running - although I was wary of Sun Tzu's death by a thousand cuts, or in this case, knock out by a thousand bruises.

We were both moving as fast as we physically could, striking and parrying each other with an efficiency that for the most part, the other matches simply hadn't had. Valeia's mistake came in the form of her following my left arm as it came around in a fake hook, that allowed my left leg to sneak in past her focus and collapse her own leg before I threw a sidekick that threw her to the floor in an unceremonious thud that left her gasping for air as the wind audibly rushed out of her.

I waited for a few seconds before she gave two weary taps on the floor and started laughing. I offered her my hand and hauled her back onto her feet where the both of us retreated back into the huddle of the security team.

"You're not bad Greg. Not bad. You drew it out too long, but at least you managed to come away with a win. Don't think I'll go so easy on you next time."

I balked at her at that. That was going _easy_? What the hell was she like when she fought like she actually meant it then?

"Don't listen to her kiddo." James said with a laugh. "She's just trying to get you riled up. She is right though, you should try to aim and have the fight over as soon as possible. At least, for the real thing."

The competition continued in that way, with each of us going up against everyone. In a way, it was more than just a competition. We learned what each other's strengths and weaknesses were, with the possible exception of James who didn't appear to have any exploitable weaknesses. I'd found out that Valeia _had_ been going easy on me - but not by much. She must have a soft spot for the new guy even though we hadn't really talked much since I arrived at the Nest.

My next opponent was Ben, who went down much easier than Valeia had done. His strikes were slightly wilder, and he let his hands hang too long in front of me whenever he threw a punch, which made it easy to throw him over my shoulder and to the floor after only a short minute of fighting, though he didn't stay down long as he rolled out of the way of my mock follow up strike and got to his feet quickly to resume the fight. He dove back in again, but I halted him and threw him backwards with a well placed front kick that had him rolling on the ground before tapping out.

Ben went down the easiest out of everyone that I fought, his brother Guy not too much harder to take down than he was. Jun was difficult due to his speed, although the number of hits that he did get in weren't enough to stop me and when I finally managed to land a blow, it took most of the fight out of him, the end to the fight coming shortly after. It was interesting to fight against Sibus and Berrilius, purely because I knew that they hadn't liked me at all not even a week ago. Because of that, they were both taking it easy on me, which annoyed me to no end. In both fights I had to practically yell at them not to just let me win. Sibus had immediately put me onto the back foot, but I had still come out victorious when he tried to use his taloned arm to outreach my legs.

Berrilius however was the first to beat me. Valeia would have done so too if she wasn't taking it easy, but after I had shown my frustration with him he had immediately stepped up his game and had whittled me down with lots of fast and powerful strikes. Half of which I managed to block, pushing myself to the limit in order to halt his momentum. The other half of those strikes landed, and I ended up tapping out after a particularly jarring combo that left me open to be thrown on the ground.

Tom was quite difficult to beat since although he didn't have much reach when compared to half of the others, his medical knowledge and his strength gave him a real edge as he could pinpoint weak spots and strike hard - which is how he managed to beat both Ben and Guy, and almost beat me as his hand came down upon the curve of my neck which briefly caused my right arm to go limp as I fell into a backwards roll to get away and recover. He ended up tapping out after I switched up my tactics and used the reach of my kicks to keep him at bay while following up with heavy handed strikes that slowly drained his defenses.

James was, most obviously, a million times better than I was - and everyone else too. He beat Ben, Guy and Jun within a few mere seconds, all three of whom went down hard as he moved around their own overly cautious movements and got them in locks that had them tapping out seemingly as soon as the fight had begun. Sibus and Sel'ama fared little better, managing to actually land a few hits of their own before being taken out. Even with her biotics, Sel'ama was bested by simply not being able to keep up with the man. Out of everyone who fought James, Valeia was probably on the most even ground with him. But it was easy to see after a short while that she was draining her energy fast, while James had barely broken a sweat during the entire competition. Berrilius wasn't much worse than Valeia, but one careless mistake had cost him the fight thirty seconds in.

I like to think that I did fairly well against James, all things considered. As the fight begun I settled into my stance, and focused on my breath as I had with each of the other fights. What I hadn't expected was for James to immediately be upon me, causing me to retreat with a backwards leap that took me well out of range of the quick jab that he had thrown my way. Immediately, I followed that up with a feinted front kick which I turned into a head high round kick that James managed to duck under as my foot sailed past where his head had been. As my foot touched down James was on me, tackling me to the ground before I could get my balance back. I managed to stop us from crashing to the floor so our momentum rolled me out from underneath him, but he was still faster getting back up and was upon me again, easily getting in and out of my reach as we parried and struck at each other. James' cool determination winning out against my own struggle to keep up with him. The spar ended with me on the floor in a sprawled heap that had me breathless and smiling all at the same time.

He helped me back onto my feet and gave me a clap on the back as we retreated off the mats to rest for a few moments while the others had their own spars to win.

"Not bad. A little slow, but we can work on that." James said to me as I wiped the sweat from my brow with a towel that some thoughtful person had brought with them from the locker room.

"What happened James? Why are you here?" His eyes seemed to haze over as he watched Sibus and Ben fight their last spar. "N6? You must've had a promising career with the Alliance… Why leave?"

"The Matriarch. I got caught on a black ops in Asari space, and she had evidence that led her back to the Alliance. It was careless and sloppy, but it happened." He looked almost wistful as he spoke. "She got me to retire from the Alliance, and for a while she owned me. The op got declassified a few months after my retirement and she could no longer blackmail me with causing a galactic incident, but the damage was done. She introduced me to Victus during that time and I decided to stick around once she lost her control over me."

"Damn…" I didn't quite know what to say. She genuinely seemed to have her hand in everyone's business here, at least to a small degree. But the fact that she was able to blackmail an N6… it made me wonder what the Alliance was doing in Asari space.

"Yeah, damn." He gave a wan smile at me before nodding his head over to the mats where Sel'ama was waiting, a hand on her hips and a cocky smile on her face. "Looks like you're up again."

I stood and moved back onto the mats with a slightly sluggish step, most of the energy having left my body over the past hour. I shook my limbs loose, jumping as I did so.

We began to circle as the fight started, and I went through my routine of opening my senses a little quicker than usual thanks to James' sudden start. Fortunately for me, Sel'ama didn't rush into an opening attack, and we found ourselves spiralling closer in a little dance as we waited for the other to make a move. When we were near enough I eventually made the first move - a quick jab that she deflected with ease before trying to get in a quick tap of her own, which I easily stepped out the way of, being much taller than she.

Our fight continued in this fashion, neither of us really fully committing to anything for a long while before I got bored and decided to go in for a nice combo that worked on the others, two jabs followed by a round kick into the midriff as I moved around my opponent. Unfortunately, she'd been paying attention to my previous fights and managed to duck under the kick, launching herself upwards and pushing my leg over my head.

I was able to throw myself into a backflip to put some distance between us, but she closed the distance quickly and tackled me, straddling me as we fell to the floor in a heap. She was giggling like crazy as we landed, and there was a sudden charge in the air between us, as though this closeness had thrown her into a new light.

I bucked her off of me and we both pounced back to our feet, a less serious, more flirtatious edge to our fighting now that seemed to have both of us going for more… sensitive areas until a small voice in the back of my head reminded me I would die if it came to that, and it was as though a cold shower had been poured down my back.

It didn't deter her however, as she continued to try and sneak in a grope or two as we fought, until one of my kicks caught her in the boob and she retaliated without thinking, a throw orb catching me in the chest and sending me flying a few meters back where I landed on the ground with a heavy thud.

I was back on my feet quickly, and I caught her quickly rubbing the sore area before turning her angry gaze to me and launching herself into a biotic-fueled barrage. The intent clearly not to kill me, just to hurt me back in turn.

Her blows were augmented by her biotics and I had to move like a wild mongoose in order to stay out of the way of her fists. At least, until she hit me with a pull field that sent me stumbling towards her as a bright blue fist came straight towards my lowered head.

Warm liquid began to fall from my cheeks as I stood there, her fist stopped dead in front of my eyes. Ozone burned in my nose and I was staring at Sel'ama's hand..

Why hadn't it hit me?

I failed to notice that the eldritch glow surrounding us wasn't just coming from Sel'ama, but also from me. A heavy droplet fell to the floor from my cheek and I looked down to see it was blood. I touched my face, and once again there was a trickle of blood coming from my eyes, but now I could see that I was glowing, an azure fire radiating from my skin.

"What… the hell…" Was all I managed to get out before everything went dark.

* * *

 **Reviews:**

TheDarknessWithin96: Probably not very long, all things considered... In regards to you wishing you could write your own story; a thousand page novel begins with a single word, to paraphrase an old saying.

rfpizzle: Just because its set in the same universe doesn't mean that this story is going to be a complete parallel. Already I feel like the storylines are diverging, and at times there will be inevitable crossovers, but I don't want the story to feel too similar to Katkillar's own.


	6. Ch 6: Destruction

**A/N:**

Just a quick message before the chapter gets underway. The story was on hold for the past few weeks due to the end of my second year of university coming to a close, and hopefully I should be getting my results for the past year fairly soon so i'll know if all the sleepless nights wrestling with ue4's blueprinting system was worth it. But! It's back to business for the story now and I'm hoping to get back to my chapter-per-week schedule for the foreseeable future now that I'm 'on holiday'.

Once again a huge thanks to KatKiller-V for beta-ing, and thanks to everyone who's reviewed the story so far, it really helps to keep me keen on writing the story knowing that there are people who are going to read it.

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Act 1: Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Destruction**

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I woke up in my bed, a large glass of water and some food that had probably once been warm set nearby. It was obviously cold now, and I would have said that that was just as well as my first act on waking was to rush myself to the bathroom to vacate my already empty stomach into the bowl.

I rinsed my mouth out with water and spluttered as it ran down my dry throat before making my way much more slowly back to my room. A quick look out the window told me that it was the early hours of the morning, the sun was just beginning to peer over the horizon, turning the nearby cloud cover a lovely shade of pink and orange.

"Glad to see you're awake, Greg." Valeia said from a chair in the corner of the room, her voice making me realise she was there at all. It was obvious that she had been asleep until I started making noise, a hand rubbing at her face as she yawned.

"Good to be awake." I replied, rubbing at my own eyes. She wasn't the only one who was tired.

"You should eat." She gestured to the food and waited for me to follow her instructions before she continued. I decided to follow her suggestion as my stomach felt dangerously empty, and despite having thrown up not five minutes ago, there was barely any nausea remaining. Still, I took it easy, settling onto my bed and taking care to eat very slowly.

"You have a lot of damage in there, Greg. I tried to do a shallow meld, but even that began to trigger a meltdown and… well, didn't go well for me either. We got a doctor to come from the hospital to oversee it all and she helped control your reaction." I was digesting her words the same as I was the food and paused when she said that a doctor had paid me a visit.

"What's happening to me Val?" I asked, swallowing the small mouthful that I'd finished chewing and slumped back into the bed.

"Well for one thing there's even more evidence that you're being honest. The doctor confirmed you have floating mind, but apart from that you're relatively stable. For someone who was almost devoured by an Ardat-Yakshi at any rate." She paused while I took a long sip from the glass of water. "The bleeding eyes isn't anything quite as serious as a haemorrhage, rather it induces haemolacria." At my blank stare she explained. "It means that whenever you use your biotics, you're going to cry blood."

"Is it serious?" Was the first thing that came to mind.

"No." She reassured me. "The doctor said that it wasn't tumour related, it's just linked to the hormone spike that naturally occurs when anyone uses biotics."

"So.. Why did I pass out in the gym?"

"Shock." Val said simply. "Fortunately for us it wasn't anything quite as dramatic as a panic attack, but you did worry us for a bit. Tom made sure that you were stable until the doctor arrived." I would have to thank him for that.

"Thank you." I said quietly. It was all a bit much to process, and I wasn't sure what else to say.

"How are you feeling now?" She asked, stifling a yawn that managed to sneak its way under her hand.

"Tired." I chuckled. "I was a bit nauseous when I woke up, but it's gone now."

"The doctor said you'd probably feel a bit sick. She gave you something to stabilise you after the meld, and got the kitchen to get you food and drink for when you woke up." She gestured to the now empty plate and glass.

"Thanks for looking after me." I stood, collecting the crockery and heading towards the door.

"Don't mention it. And hey, take it easy, ok? You need to drink more water too." Valeia spoke as she followed me out of my room and down the corridor to her own dorm, where she bid me farewell and no doubt went to get some actual sleep.

I, on the other hand, went to the cafeteria to return the plate and glass, grabbing a bottle of water on the way out.

There wasn't anybody else around at this point, since most others were still asleep - including Tom, who I presumed was with Sibus as he wasn't in the dorm room.

I walked past the room that held our Asari captive, and a quick look inside showed me that she was currently unconscious, a light snore making its way out of her. Not seeing anything else to do I decided to head to the workshop to see if I could find something to work on when I heard what sounded like Sugorn approaching from around the corner.

"...It's going to complicate matters, I'm sure. We should have already received the shipment by now-" Sugorn practically froze as the two turned the corner and nearly bumped into me. Daesh was much more collected about the surprise meeting, and merely greeted me.

"I heard about what happened yesterday. Are you feeling alright?" Daesh asked in a pleasant tone that, had it come from Sugorn would have made me incredibly suspicious. As it was I was more than a little curious as to what the two were talking about, but I decided against asking.

"Yeah, I'm fine now, thank you. It was quite a shock." I chuckled nervously before edging my way past the two. I didn't mind Daesh, but I would rather get hit by another car than spend more than five minutes with Sugorn.

Despite this, my curious and slightly paranoid mind made me stop around the corner to see if I could hear what it was that the two Salarians had been talking about.

"When are they coming?" Sugorn asked as I heard their footsteps start up again at a leisurely pace.

"I got word that they're coming today on account of last week's events." Daesh replied,

"Today? Good. They're a month too late if you ask me." I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but it didn't sound too good, whatever it was. For all I knew though, they were talking about the new weapons shipment that Berrilius had been speaking about when I got my armour fitted. Or maybe they had family coming or something.

I quietly continued on my way to the workshop, trying not to dwell on the arguably dubious nature of their conversation and focusing instead on just what the hell had happened to me yesterday.

Sel'ama's fist had been right _there_. And suddenly her fist had _frozen_ in front of me, just as I had managed to right myself. And I was glowing. I had been _glowing._ What the hell was that about? I mean… I knew what that was about, but that didn't exactly explain how. Perhaps it was a side-effect of being brought across dimensions? Or perhaps it was something else entirely… I didn't know - couldn't know. And perhaps I never would now that the Matriarch had done her disappearing act. Not that I'd want to ever see her again, but I was sure that she had information that could have been useful for me in terms of just how the hell I was a _biotic_.

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly as it was all they seemed to do, both Ratchet and Clank were in the workshop, setting up their itinerary for the day's work. They paused briefly to greet me before they went back to getting themselves organised.

"Didn't know you had the soul grip, Greg." Clank rumbled as he walked by with what looked to be an electro-welder, the odd tool similar in design to the thing that Shepard fried the blue Suns guy with at the start of the second game.

"Soul grip?" I queried. It was almost certainly a Krogan term for something, but I was too tired and didn't feel like guessing.

"Biotics." He answered lazily. "You used them yesterday at the gym, before you passed out."

"Right. Yeah… no I actually had no idea that I had them. There were a few times over the past month when I've had a really sharp smell in my nose, but I didn't think anything of it since that was the extent of it." And I was actually telling the truth on that, at least.

"So it was instinctual usage of it then?" Clank pressed.

"I guess so… I just remember seeing Sel's fist coming right between my eyes and then it was just… frozen. Like it had already connected with something. But it hadn't hit me, you know?"

"Yeah. You put up a barrier strong enough to stop the punch. Did you feel it?" When I simply shook my head he hummed in thought for a moment, his bassline rumble reverberating around the workshop as Ratched flitted around the room. "If I were you I would learn how to control them again, maybe get an amp implant. Try to get it so you don't pass out when they're activated."

"Yeah… It shouldn't happen next time. Valeia told me what happened after. Apparently it was just shock, nothing to do with my floating mind fortunately." I said in response. In my legless days here I'd looked up just what exactly floating mind syndrome was, and whether or not it was reversible. Fortunately for me, it was something that could be healed. Unfortunately for me, it could take as long as five years to completely disappear in humans, which had come from data from observing those affected by it.

"Well, at least it proves you're honest then." Ratchet piped up from his corner, his head buried in a datapad while he busied his hands with something else.

"Fat lot of good honesty does me if it gets me dead." Came my dull reply, to which Clank grunted in agreement.

"Honesty will get you friends and allies though, don't forget that." I hummed my reply back to the Krogan, who was already busying himself with the finer workings of an eezo engine.

The morning passed by steadily, although as it neared lunch the muffled pitter-patter of rain could be heard coming in through the workshop walls. Having not been in the rain in over a year, I decided to head outside, since it wasn't particularly cold.

The water was cool against my skin and it quickly soaked through my clothes, but I wasn't too bothered by it as I walked through the downpour. Liquid ran down my face and body as I went, though I didn't bow to the weather, instead relishing the freshness of it all. It was like another new start, and it was… relaxing to be able to walk through the compound like this.

After a while, Ratchet and Clank came out to drag me inside, and we all went to the cafeteria after a quick stop by my room to grab a towel and a change of clothes.

It was there that Victus made the call for us to get geared up for the interrogation. I was halfway through biting a sandwich when everyone on team dropped what they were doing and left. Not really knowing what to do, I followed suit and shoved the rest of my food into my mouth as I hurried out the room after them all.

We met in the armoury, getting equipped in armour for an intimidation factor, as well as not letting the Asari know who was who during the interrogation.

Roughly ten minutes later the Asari's interrogation began, which started out with Victus entering the room with a sizeable jug of water and two glasses, into which he poured some of the refreshing liquid. The rest of us moved to stand around the edges of the room, circling the the two of them entirely. It was a not-so-subtle way of telling the Asari that she wouldn't be getting out of here until we had what we wanted.

She eyed the water feverishly, unwilling to take her eyes off of the filled glasses in case they were to disappear if her gaze became averted, and I wasn't sure she even noticed the rest of us.

"Here. Have a drink." Victus spoke in a not unkind voice, moving around the table to pour some of the liquid down her throat. "So. You understand the situation that you're in?"

When the Asari gave him a deadpan stare, Victus decided to elaborate on what that was exactly. "You attempted to infiltrate one Donovan Hock's estate, for purposes currently unknown, but you couldn't make it past the guards. I wonder what your employer thinks of you now - or the rest of your unit for that matter. That is, if any of them are still alive. We have two of them here you know, I'm sure the rest were… discarded."

The Asari's blank expression shifted into a snarl as she wrenched at her restraints, not managing to do more as Victus placidly continued. "Now now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. A bit of a cliche, I know, but one is easy for you, and the other I'm sure will be quite entertaining for me."

The Asari kept her mouth shut, her semi-professional nature evidently demanding that she not take the initial bait.

"Our technicians have found some interesting bits of information from the armour your friends were wearing you know. Looks Human-made, but it's got Asari electronics. Visor's blacked out so no one would be able to tell that it was an Asari behind the mask, the armour's even rigged to blow if the occupant is dead and someone tried to forcibly remove it, destroys the evidence. So. What's it going to be?"

The Asari was motionless for a few moments. Victus had laid down a lot of information that, if her increasingly alarmed expression was anything to go by, we weren't supposed to know. Or at least, not been able to figure out that quickly. There were still a few missing pieces, obviously, and we'd probably figure out just what it was that was happening, however, it would take longer.

And time wasn't a luxury we could afford.

"What do you want to know?" Her voice rasped as her dry throat tried to get her words out.

"Who do you work for?" Victus immediately questioned, wasting no time in beginning the interrogation.

The Asari hesitated at the question, swallowed… and then shook her head and kept her mouth shut.

"Are you a mercenary?" Victus asked quietly. "You certainly seem to have a certain professional quality to you, even if it isn't quite to the standard I've come to expect from my own team." The Asari grimaced at that, but continued to keep quiet. "If you aren't answering you're most likely tied to the republics. That or an extremely influential Matriarch. Who?"

When she still didn't reply, he sighed heavily and spared a glance around the room at the rest of us. We all knew what he was thinking, but without any proof it could be any Asari who'd reached a certain age, even if they weren't one of the more politically relevant ones.

"And what exactly was your mission? Why did none of you use your biotics? I'm sure it would have made for an easier fight." Moments passed before the Asari in the chair even met eyes with Victus, but it was obvious that she'd already changed her mind about saying anything. Just by surviving she'd probably made herself a target, but if she kept her mouth shut whoever had hired her might forgive that.

Victus locked eyes with myself and James as he got up and took a step back around the table. James motioned for me to follow him closer to the Asari and we walked around so that she could see the both of us. She didn't react when her eyes searched James, but she visibly flinched when she looked at me, something to which I gave a mirthless smile.

"You're supposed to be dead." She hissed out of her throat, her wall cracking. "All of you!"

"Why?" James probed, his deep baritone cutting through her next venom filled remark. "We've got a pretty good idea of who you work for, despite your silence. What we don't know, is why she wants us dead. Care to enlighten us on that front?"

There was a tiny flinch at the implication that we already knew… but she didn't deny anything.

"It was the Matriarch, wasn't it?" I took a stab, watching her reaction.

She almost hid the flinch, but I saw it.

My mind promptly began racing at the possibilities for why the Matriarch would effectively start a war between herself and those at the Nest. The most obvious and egotistical reason, was myself. Perhaps she had expected me to go down a more peaceful route, unable to become a thorn in her side, or perhaps she had predicted my intentions and intended to put a halt to me before it had even begun. The third option was something that I didn't really want to consider, but was almost entirely true, was that she had someone working for her on the inside… and that she had reasons to want everyone else here dead too.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She replied to me with a sneer that only seemed to make my suspicions grow.

Leaning towards Victus, I lowered my voice considerably. "Do we have a mole?"

"What are you suggesting Greg? That we have someone feeding her information?" Victus said to me equally quietly, his flanging voice holding an accusatory edge.

I held Victus' gaze while I answered my retort "Yes. And don't call me paranoid, because that seems exactly like something she would do, and I've only met the bitch twice." He seemed to pause at that for a moment before nodding slowly, reluctantly in agreement. Seeing that, I pushed on. "It wouldn't necessarily be an Asari, either. While I'm sure that she would prefer all of her agents to be, she wouldn't be stupid enough to have intelligence gatherers being identical, it would make them too obvious."

"Having them all be Asari would severely reduce her reach, for sure, but who here would side with her? We all know of her either through personal experience, or vicariously through Victus and none of us want anything to do with the whore." Valeia chimed in on our conversation, her arms crossing in annoyance.

"Hey! Don't you call her that you worthless piece of tra-"

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up... Now." Frustration caused me to interrupt the Asari by grabbing her face and leaning dangerously close to her, my voice low and angry. "You don't get to talk unless we ask you something directly. Is that understood?"

Unable to speak her reply she merely nodded her head. I released her with a push and returned to my frantic musings. Mutterings had already started from everyone else, debates starting up as we tried to figure out what was happening.

"James," I spoke after a few seconds of thought, "You said everyone had personal experiences with the Matriarch, you know everyone's story?"

He shook his head after a minute of thinking. Well that wasn't good. That basically meant that it could be damn near anyone."I don't. It wouldn't be anyone in this room, of that I'm certain, but most of the others here have only seen her in passing from what I know."

"What're you thinking Gee?" Berrilius chimed in from behind the Asari.

"Anyone who has said that they've had direct contact with the Matriarch has hated her guts. None of them want anything to do with her, so my best guess right now is that anyone who hasn't said so is a possible mole." I turned my attention back to the Asari sat in the chair who had taken to looking around the room. I snapped my fingers in front of her impatiently to get her attention before addressing her. "You said we were supposed to be dead. Why."

"Go drown in the deeps." She snarled back at me.

"I already am, bitch. Now tell me, why does she want us dead?" I pressed, but it didn't look as though she was going to budge. "How's your leg? I heard Tom over there had straightened it out again, gave you a nice dose of medigel to get you walking again. I can always undo his work you know." As if to prove a point I tapped the side of her knee which drew a sharp wince from her.

"Fuck you." She managed to get out through gritted teeth.

"Are you really so devoted to that old blue bitch? You do realise that you're expendable to her, right? That's all you are. A pawn."

"And what do you think all of you are? You think you're free to do whatever you want, don't you? Well... You've got another thing coming." The Asari had fire in her eyes and clenched her jaw when she finished talking. She was evidently done, at least, unless I actually went through with my threats.

Before I could really consider that option, the sound of chaos permeated through to where we were in situ, the dull thud of an explosion accompanied by the shifting of rubble, and the terrified screams of people under attack.

"Fuck." Ben was the only one to express the sentiment that we were all feeling that very second.

"Come on, we've got to get to the armoury." Guy chimed, marching purposefully to the door, only to fly backwards as the door blew open as he reached it, the wet snap of him hitting the wall hidden behind the noise of the blast and the crunching of his armour. The shockwave rattled the rest of us, but the charge hadn't been designed to destroy the contents of the room and so we were relatively unscathed. At least until a small fireteam of three commandos burst in through the hole in the wall and immediately began firing upon us. Valeia and Sel'ama had instinctively brought forth a barrier that sheltered us from their incoming fire and gave us the second or two we needed to take stock and react.

James moved like smoke, and despite his Asari counterparts using what was obviously powerful biotic strikes, they simply never landed as he took on the lead Asari, shifting her weapon away as she entered the bubble that our own Asari had created. Tom had rushed over to Guy to try and triage as much of the damage as he could, but I had no idea whether or not it was a futile effort.

Ben was hovering over Guy and Tom, fury evident even behind his helmet, while myself, Jun, Sibus and Berrilius joined James in the brawl. The two Turians were far taller than their counterpart, and so the issue of being hit by any attacks rarely came into consideration as they controlled their Asari from afar, driving her into the ground with talon driven strikes and slashes that cut through the somewhat scantily clad Asari.

I shook my head sharply, now was definitely not the time to be thinking of that!

My head felt like it was splitting as I tried unsuccessfully to call upon my biotics to help me win my own battle. The Asari I had landed must have been a giant by her own species, matching my six foot plus height, and even through what I thought was huntress armour I could see her rippling muscles contorting with each movement she made.

Without her biotics we were fairly evenly matched. Her strength matched my own, and at a glance our fighting styles were fairly similar. But it was when she introduced her biotics that the pressure was really put on.

Her biotics seemed to make her move even faster than she had been before, and each strike hit harder and harder than the one before. Which was when I decided to get inside of her reach. That had been the best thing I'd done during the fighting as I held her elbow to my body and snaked my other arm around her back, holding her close to myself as I moved my arms underneath her own and lifted her off the floor.

As soon as I did that she increased her weight tenfold on reflex, but I wasn't trying to hold her up, and so she fell to the floor in a heap, myself falling into a half guard position that I rolled into an anaconda choke as she tried to twist and push me off. She hadn't been wearing a helmet, and during the last few moments of the fight I could clearly hear her trying to suck in the air that my arm was blocking off from her.

A few seconds later she fell limp, Sibus turning from his previous target to help me out with getting rid of mine.

"This is a nightwind squad…junior one, but still." James murmured as he inspected the Asari on the floor, picking up a rifle and scrutinising it before checking the corridor outside.

"We need to get Guy medical treatment quickly, I don't know how long I can keep him stable for."

"What's the damage, Tom?" Ben asked quietly.

"Looks like he's got a punctured lung, several broken ribs and he's definitely got some sort of head trauma. I'll know more when we can get him to my equipment and I can do a full scan. Sibus, help me move him will you? Be careful with his neck!" The Turian dutifully obliged as the rest of us moved forwards.

"Victus, are you going to be alright?" Berry asked the older Turian.

"I'll be fine. It's not like I don't have any experience with this sort of thing." He replied, patting his hip. He looked a little shaken up, but no worse for wear really. "Go on ahead, I will stay with Guy and Tom."

"Val, take this. Berrilius." James called out to the two as he chucked them the two other rifles that the Asari had been using before grabbing their secondaries and dishing them out to the rest of us. Myself, Ben and Sibus were equipped with submachine guns while Sel'ama and Jun lit up in blue and orange as they each activated their biotics and tech respectively.

The rest of us left the corridor, James led us through the building, where there were barely any bodies left behind from the attack. Bullet holes and blood? There was plenty of that, just no bodies.

The reason why didn't show itself until we made it outside.

The residents at the Nest were being enslaved. A shuttle full of people who not an hour earlier had been enjoying their lunch lifted off, the door shutting on the terrified crowd as the vehicle rose and took off.

Damnable harpy!

The thought seemed to resonate from my headache, but I couldn't agree more with it. The Matriarch was taking us, she was taking them somewhere. I just didn't know where - or for what purpose, but it couldn't be anything pleasant if the manner of extraction was any indication.

Another shuttle filled the area the first had been, and several Asari began to herd another small crowd of people towards the makeshift prisoner transport.

"We've got to stop them." Valeia practically whispered.

"No shit, sherlock." I retorted, my own voice low "But there's only nine of us who can still fight. They've got the numbers and probably the equipment advantage on us. We're gonna need a plan."

James was halfway through constructing a plan of attack when my headache spiked and I barely stopped myself from collapsing to the floor. I had to remove my helmet and rub circles into my temples.

"Greg, you alright?" Jun asked me, worry in his voice.

"Yeah, yeah… I'm fine, it's just a headache." The words sounded hollow, even to me, but the attention fell back to planning for the moment.

"They probably wouldn't expect a simple head on attack." Ben suggested. He was getting fidgety with the lack of action being taken.

"Probably, but that would leave us out in the open and we'd all be killed. Which would accomplish nothing." James countered.

It was around then that I looked up to see two Salarians in the throng of Asari, the both of them without helmets, and the both of them giving out orders to the attackers.

"Fucking traitors." I growled as I stood, my headache all but forgotten as the objects of my fury pranced about like they owned the planet not fifty meters away. Immediately I was grabbed and hauled back down, the noise of it no doubt alerting at least one of the Matriarch's goon squad.

"What they hell do you think you're doing?" Sibus hissed at me.

"Sugorn and Daesh are over there." I stated simply, as though that would explain everything - although it did explain a lot.

"And? So's the rest of the fucking-"

"They're not fucking captives you idiots." I interrupted Sibus as he tried to berate me. "They're the ones giving the goddamn orders." And that was the cue for everyone to peek around the rubble that we'd hidden behind, each of them letting out a small curse when they saw I was right.

Ozone tickled my nose and I could feel a pressure building behind my eyes.

"We're taking them in, alive." James commanded, his voice fierce. "I want to ask them a few questions."

"We need to move." Sel said, ushering us back into the building we'd just come out of so that we were further out of sight.

It was just in time too, since a couple Asari had made their way over, most likely to check what had been going on behind the rubble. At least, that's what I thought until more joined them and they carried on heading straight for us.

The plan that I hadn't been listening to due to my headache wasn't going to work now anyhow. It relied on us not being inside the building before we initiated contact and there wasn't much other choice but to come out swinging.

Which was exactly what we did.

The first two Asari were taken down by James in a heartbeat. The first was felled with a lightning fast double tap as he surprised them by charging around the corner and getting the business end of his stolen weapon on the inside of her shields, with the second taking a full five round burst to the upper chest, leaving a trail of blood as she fell.

Sibus and Sel'ama were the next out and they immediately began to suppress those who were behind the first two. It forced them to get into cover or, like those few who were too slow to react, get drilled with Mass Effect propelled lead.

Berrilius, Valeia and I came next, the three of us moving around and beyond the others, taking cover in the rubble once again, but this time making use of it as we sprayed the incoming hostiles with fire, taking down one for each of us and scattering the rest. It was at this time when Sibus, Tom, Ben and Jun came out, guns blazing as they charged over to us.

"We need people to get around the side before we get outflanked." James called over the gunfire. "Val, Sel. You're up. Greg, do you know how to do a biotic charge?" The two Asari immediately shifted out of their positions and disappeared in a literal flash of light as they charged to their destination, which happened to be the alleyway of an adjacent building.

"No… I don't think so." I said unsure. "I don't know if I can even keep them up without passing out."

"Right. It's just the two of them there then." James took quick stock of the situation before making sure we knew what we were doing. "You three, stay here and stop them from getting around us. Sibus, Berrilius, on me. Let's move!"

As one we rose from cover, our combined fire forcing the Asari into cover as James, Sibus and Berry took off like jets and headed for cover that was slightly closer than Valeia and Sel'ama's had been.

The two Asari had seen our focused fire and had added their own efforts, their position giving them an advantageous angle to fire from, letting most of their shots hit as the Matriarch's people fought to get down into cover.

As soon as people started to realise what was happening there was a mixture of screaming and cheering as the some of the crowd of people tried to run and hide, but a lot of those who were left tried to help us out by rushing the guards that were near them, the attackers distracted by the events that were unfolding.

They succeeded for the most part, trampling those who were close under a sea of bodies, but their help was cut rather short when a gunship chose that moment to appear and opened fire on the crowd, cutting a line clean through them and causing them to disperse or be felled by the gunship's minigun.

We weren't free from being targets either, as the gunship focused its main gun on anyone who poked their heads out of cover.

And then it fired missiles.

Valeia and Sel'ama were unharmed by the few that were sent their way, the two Asari projecting a barrier that let the missiles explode harmlessly against it, although it did cause them to visibly flinch as they struck.

James' group were hit fairly badly. With no biotics to protect them, they relied on their cover to stop the ones going for them. One hit the broken wall they were hiding behind, reducing it to little more than a pile of dirt as rubble flew off in multiple directions. The second and third hit either side of it, the blasts throwing them around and into the path of the fourth, which hit Sibus directly.

And there were some coming our way, too. I shared a look with Jun and Ben, the latter weakly raising a finger as though to point at me before I looked away. Our cover was bare enough as it was. With how many were coming our way, I wasn't expecting to make it through the next few moments. And there is something to be said for that. Time literally felt like it had slowed to a crawl as the missiles flew ever closer to us.

I wasn't supposed to be here, I wasn't supposed to have biotics and I certainly wasn't supposed to survive. And all of this was thanks to the Matriarch.

The sharp tang of ozone flew into my nostrils as a blue glow lit up the rubble around me, casting strange shadows. I wasn't sure how I would control the eldritch power that flowed within me, but perhaps I didn't need to.

I gave myself over to it, let my body move on its own accord, as though I had given someone else the controls. And like a wraith, I moved.

The first missile blew up against a barrier that had erected itself around me, the second crashing into the ground on the other side of the rubble, doing little else than throwing the floor into the air. The third seemed to veer off course, as I led it around with my hand. The missile appeared as though it were being affected by magnets, veering to the right in a slow arc before quickly turning around and launching itself back towards the gunship.

It didn't do much other than rock the boat, but it gave us the opening we needed. Jun and Ben focused fire on the Asari who'd grown confident and had stepped out of cover, moving towards us, while Valeia and Sel'ama were hurling a mixture of biotic attacks and gunfire down range at whatever targets they could as they moved towards James, Sibus and Berrilius.

The group in question weren't acting at all, so we had to assume that they were down for the count at the moment, and the anger that came with that feeling of despair was overwhelming. A large piece of concrete with rebar sticking out of it caught my eye and I sprinted towards it, effortlessly lifting it as the concrete began to glow blue and dislodged itself from where it was nestled in the rubble. Running up the pile of rubble I leapt onto an awning that stuck out from the broken building to our right, the pile of bricks an uneven set of stairs that got me within jumping distance from the gunship.

As I leapt from the awning the gunship seemed to try and veer out the way of my trajectory, but it was too little too late as my metallic feet hit the cockpit, creating a spiderweb of cracks in the glass. I brought the rebar up above my head and like a sledgehammer, brought it down onto the cockpit, the weight of the concrete now increased tenfold as it broke through the reinforced glass, both materials shattering under the force, the rebar snapping in two as part of it was still surrounded in a large bit of concrete.

A glance at the pilot and I grabbed the chunk of rebar still with the concrete on and removed it by hitting the pilot's helmeted head with it before throwing the rebar into the engine's air intake and causing a dangerous spluttering sound to be heard from the engine before a gout of fire burst from the intake.

The rest of the rebar I shoved through the controls of the aircraft before I leapt off the craft landing into an awkward roll as I came down harder than expected.

Behind me the gunship spun around wildly once, before it dropped like a stone, the eezo engine detonating as it hit the ground just behind the Asari's cover, the fuselage acting as shrapnel as it tore into the Matriarch's troops.

Their screaming was the last thing I heard.

* * *

 **Reviews:**

Tusken1602: Nope, not Vega, although I can see why you might think that :)

Menschenblut: Thanks for all the suggestions - and that ad might make it into the story at some point...


	7. Ch 7: Ruins

**Author's Note:** Big thank you once again for the awesome Kat-killer-V for beta-ing this story, and a quick apology for the delay in the chapter. But it's here now, so it'll have to do.

* * *

 **Act 1: Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Ruins**

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"What… What happened?" I asked as I sucked in the still air heavily as small fires crackled and burned around me. I was no longer plunged in darkness - so to speak, and the sudden appearance of the destruction around me was somewhat terrifying. The fact that I was still upright and alive was about the only good thing I could see in the first few moments.

I recognised the surrounding ruins, what was left of them anyway, as the remains of the Nest. Rubble littered the ground that I stood on, and there were seemingly countless bodies lying still, pools of blood drowning out most of who they had been.

My foot squelched as I moved it and I looked down to see it covered in gore. I immediately staggered away from it, retching at the sight, and the motion caused me to empty the contents of my stomach onto the floor which only made the nausea worse.

"Greg!" A deep, booming voice called my name. I raised a hand in response as I tried to spit out the last bits of vomit that clung to the inside of my mouth. As I straightened up I noticed that the figure I had stepped through was a Salarian, and the anger that had been triggered by Daesh and Sugorn promptly resurfaced.

I turned to see who it was that had called out to me, and saw Clank forcefully pulling both Ratchet and Valeia behind him before he approached.

"Clank? What happened? Where's Sugorn? And Daesh?" I asked, the fury in my voice dilated by a fit of coughing and the worst headache I'd experienced yet. It was bad enough that I was tempted to start calling it a migraine.

"Daesh is under you." Clank informed me as he approached, his arms raised forwards in a strangely peaceful gesture.

"He's.. he's what?" I breathed. "Did… did I do that?" I pointed at my feet, unable to look at the havoc I'd wreaked.

Clank nodded slowly as he stepped within arms reach of me, his eyes never leaving mine even as he took hold of my arms and pulled me out of the green goop that was the remainder of Daesh's head.

"What happened?" He asked calmly. His voice reminded me of my Dad's, and it acted like an anchor.

"I don't know… I remember the gunship, the missiles… It… Are the others ok?" I tried to look around Clank to see if I could see the others, but he guided my head to look back at him.

"What happened after the gunship, Greg? Do you remember?"

"No. I… I stopped the missiles and then I destroyed the gunship, I remember that. But after that it all... stops… How did I get here? We were in the courtyard… Why are we in the garden?"

"Come with me." Clank let go of me and turned around, his heavy steps creating small dust clouds as he went. I followed behind slowly, the gore on my legs seizing up the servos slightly. They would need to be cleaned deeply… I wasn't looking forwards to that. Perhap even have some parts replaced if the scorch marks, dents, and scratches were anything to go by.

Moving quickly began to hurt. As I followed Clank I became acutely aware that most of my armour had been literally destroyed, the undersuit barely intact. It looked as though it had been melted by a hand that had been dragged across my shoulder, fingers leaving gouges where the gilded wings were supposed to shine. My arms weren't any less damaged either, the shattered plates dangerously close to falling off my body.

The others weren't particularly far away, so despite the stiffness of my walk it didn't take long to reach them.

Guy was awake, although he wasn't standing. Tom had him in a brace and Ben was fussing over him, making sure that the wounded man had whatever he needed. The similarly injured James was unconscious and had been placed on a stretcher, burn marks covered most of his visible skin. Which, unfortunately, was pretty much all of him. The blast that had hit him must have destroyed most of his armour.

For their parts, Berrilius and Sibus weren't any better, although Berrilius was actually awake and groaning quietly to himself whenever his plates shifted. A bit away from the group, sitting together on a bench, were Valeia and Sel'ama. They both looked exhausted, but despite a few marks on their armour, they were for the most part unharmed.

Victus was sat on the rubble, a troubled look on his face as he cast his gaze over what had once been the compound.

His compound.

"He's back." Clank announced, upon which those who were conscious seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief that I didn't realise they had been holding.

"What happened?" I asked warily, casting sidewards glances at everyone as I hoped to actually get an answer.

"You don't remember?" Sel'ama scoffed, the disbelief more than audible.

"No. The rockets were coming for us and I stopped them… Stopped the gunship. But then there's nothing… Just… Black. What happened? Please?"

"You really don't remember anything?" It was Tom this time, though his tired voice at least sounded confused rather than untrusting.

"No!" I cried. "What did I do?"

Valeia sighed, standing up and walking over before taking me by the hand. She led me over to a fairly large pile of rubble, away from the others, before we both sat back down.

"You went berserk." She began, "You made fighting back against the Matriarch's people both a little easier, and a littler harder. You began to focus on getting to Sugorn and Daesh, understandably, of course." There was a pause, as though she was unwilling to retell the events and forcing herself for my sake. "We were playing catch up with you for most of the fighting. You'd push through their ranks, we'd have to cover you before you got yourself killed. It was a mess. Like an animal chasing after something it had smelt."

"I was like that?" I swallowed, trying to remember anything and failing. "Why?"

"I don't know… _We_ don't know. We were hoping you would be able to tell us what happened." Valeia responded, then shook her head once before continuing on with her description of events. "You weren't just behaving differently though. When we managed to catch up to you we realised that you were moving like a completely different person, talking like one too."

"I talked like a different person?" I had to raise my eyebrows at that.

"Yeah. It might have been funny if it wasn't so terrifying. You had a sort of stutter when you talked, you kept getting stuck on harsh sounds. And you stomped about like a child having a tantrum."

"I had a speech impediment and stomped around. Really? I mean, the gore and stuff gives you credibility but I don't think I'd ever talk like that."

And that was when she got out her omnitool and played a short video of those of us who were conscious walking into the armoury. And clear as day, there I was. Each foot coming down with a hard crunch as though I was trying to grow roots into the ground with each step I took. "See? We need these. Det.. Det… Det.. Detpaaacks." My laughter rang out as the recording ended.

"I… What?" I struggled to understand just what it was that was happening. Just as she'd said, I'd both stuttered and over-accented the consonants in each word… and the laughter at the end...

I must have looked insane to them. Hell, I probably still did.

"Why did we need detpacks?" I queried softly, the contrast of my voice and the recording almost comical.

"We… well you, blew up a couple of the shuttles that came to pick up the troops. One of them crashed into the compound, next to the garden." She sighed, nodding her head to our left, where the smoldering wreck of a shuttle still lay. "The fighting up until that point must have lasted an hour. Then you got all worked up. We tried to stop you, but… Well whoever you became... he knows how to use biotics very well, even without an amp."

That… didn't make sense. I'd read a little on biotics, and Humans weren't supposed to be able to do much of anything without an implanted amp. Either I was absurdly unique… or the Matriarch had done something to my brain that the scans had missed.

"Sel'ama and I must have chased you around the compound for what seemed like an eternity before we lost you." She continued even as I fretted, "When we found you again… You'd killed the few Asari who'd survived the crash, executed them while they were wounded we think, and you'd rounded on Daesh. It was like you were burning in warpfire, as you went up to him… And then you began interrogating him."

Valeia sighed again, all of her focus on me. It was most likely to see just how I'd react to being told what I'd done. Which was still mostly confusion, really… with a side of fear. It was like I was being told that some other person who looked like me had come in to save the day and fuck shit up. I didn't know what to make of it all.

"You beat some information out of him, stuff that we couldn't get out of the Asari anyway… But it was all still gibberish to us."

I blinked. "What did he say?"

There was a shrug. "Some crap about the Matriarch not being in control. It was something about some giant squid thing."

"Giant squid?" Had he meant the Reapers? It had to be right? But then… That didn't make any sense. The Matriarch had always said that it was her goal to aid Shepard. If that was true then she literally couldn't be working for them. So who…or what had she been talking about?

Had she been lying about even that much?

"That's what he said." My friend shrugged again. "Well after you got what you seemed to want out of him you went to kill him. We tried to stop you."

"Tried?" I asked.

"Myself and Sel'ama both approached and made to get you away from Daesh, but you turned and attacked us as soon as we began to move you away. You threw us across the yard. We weren't hurt as much as stunned, but when we saw you move next, you were bringing your foot down onto Daesh's head."

"Jesus. So I was… I was this person for over an hour?"

"More or less, yeah." Valeia's confirmation did little to make me feel better. I didn't know it, but evidently I had another person living inside my head, just waiting for the chance to come out. And that person was apparently very angry and more than a little crazy.

"So…" I swallowed. I had no idea what to do about that, but I doubted I'd think of anything right this moment. "What do we do now?"

"Well… We go to Victus. We need to heal our wounded first, and then we go on from there." With that she stood up and began to head back over to the others. When I didn't follow immediately she stopped and turned, beckoning me to follow with her head.

The air was dour when we got back to the others, although it wasn't exactly to figure out why. There must have been close to a hundred people that lived here. And now all that was left of it all was only a quarter of that number, if that. The smell of death hung in the air as sirens began to wail in the distance as the local police force approached.

We were all huddled fairly close together when they finally came, arriving in a flurry of brightly painted aircars, although Clank was busy shifting rubble. He was still trying to get bodies out from the ruined compound.

"New Islington Police!" A gruff voice called out as the sirens were now obnoxiously loud. "Identify yourselves!" We could tell that there were weapons pointed at us, though no police were yet to be seen in the open, staying in or behind their vehicles.

"Marcius Victus, owner of the compound, accompanied by residents." Victus responded, loudly enough for them to hear as he stepped away from the rest of us. Although his voice was calm and level it was easy to see that he was tired.

"Mr Victus, sir! Are you alright?" A squad of men and woman walked out of cover, most of them scanning the area with their weapons for signs of hostiles, though a heavy set man with a large handlebar moustache was the one to talk, his body language more relaxed than those around him.

"I'm quite fine, thank you sergeant." Victus sat on the rubble rather than remain standing, and the sergeant offered the ancient Turian a quick salute before taking control of his squad. I and the other relaxed a little as he ordered them to help Clank retrieve bodies from the rubble, and then he returned his attention to Victus.

"I heard the report and got here as quickly as I could." The evident officer continued. "What happened here sir?"

"This is Matriarch business, Dennis. Don't involve yourself too heavily or you'll end up… what's the human saying? Up shit creek without a paddle?" I belatedly recognized Dennis as soon as I heard his name. He'd visited the compound a few times to see a few of the residents and to speak with Victus, though he'd never stayed long or spoken to me.

"Ah." Apparently he was involved enough in the politics of the Nest to know that whenever something was 'Matriarch business', it was best not to get involved. "I've still got to complete my report however."

"I understand." Victus said graciously before Dennis the sergeant began asking him questions.

The rest of us were ushered aside by other members of the local police force and led over to the police shuttles where we found a few ambulances by the police's vehicles. The doctors and medics that emerged from them immediately moving forwards to work, several being directed to the more seriously injured who had yet to be risked moving, while only a couple were pointed in our direction to take care of the less grevious injuries.

Valeia and Sel'ama were given saline solutions to help stave off the symptoms of biotic exhaustion, as well as getting prescribed rest to prevent any further damage to themselves. Jun and Ben had the least of all our injuries. They were still bruised and battered for sure, but that was essentially the extent of it, bar some shrapnel needing removal.

I had minor burns on my chest where the heat from the warpfire had made it's way through my armour, as well as multiple lacerations along my arms. One of the doctors joked that it was just as well that most of my legs were already missing or I probably would have lost them all over again judging from the amount of damage the prosthetics had warded off.

I hadn't laughed.

Once they were done inspecting me, I looked around at the few who had made it through the entire ordeal and found myself feeling... empty.

Out of the hundred or so people that had called this place home, barely twenty were left, and most of those were the security team. Aela was looking rather distraught, and without Lily beside her I could see why. There was an Asari-Human couple who were holding each other, the former had clearly been the protector of the other given the amount of bandages that she had. Most of the others I knew by face, but not by name.

Clank stood solemnly a few feet away from the main group and I found myself searching the few remaining faces for the one person who I wanted to see. He caught my eye and lumbered over, a slow shake of his large reptilian head confirmed what the emotions welling up inside me already knew.

"He's not here, is he?" My voice trembled slightly as I spoke, my hands curling into fists that dug my nails into my own hand, threatening to draw blood.

I was almost irrationally angry at the fact that he was gone, despite my anger being entirely justifiable. It dropped a red haze over my eyes and I began to pace. I felt like a caged animal, strong and wild, but helpless to do anything. Was this what the other me had been like?

"Control the blood rage, Greg." Clank rumbled, a sagely edge to his deep voice. "Don't let it control you."

"I just… He was the first person I felt I could trust since waking up, you know? And now that someone has taken him…" I had to shut my eyes and take a deep breath in order to stop myself from lashing out at the nearest object as tendrils of blue light snaked their way out of my skin.

"I know, he's my friend too. Didn't see them take him, but he's not among the dead. We'll find him." I could see in his eyes how furious he himself was, there was a raging inferno hidden behind his eyes.

In return, I simply nodded once. Whatever it took, together, we would rescue Ratchet.

It wasn't too long before Sgt. Dennis and Victus returned to us, the former advising us not to leave the Serpent Nebula for a few weeks so that C-Sec and the Bekenstein branch of said police force could still reach us. They would apparently do so if there was any new information that cropped up for the no doubt long investigation that was going to follow.

Dennis assured us that an APB had been sent out looking for the shuttles going off-world, and any Republics vessels in the local cluster would be searched, but with the head start that they had it wasn't hopeful. And from the slight stress on the Asari nation's name, I could only guess that politics could also make that complicated.

Meanwhile the medics had managed to stabilise the gravely wounded few, and were already in the process of taking them to the hospital where I had received my prosthetics. They would stay there for a while before no doubt being transferred to a larger hospital on the Citadel.

I had collapsed onto a large piece of rubble as I was beginning to feel too exhausted to even stand, scrubbing at the plates on one of my legs to begin cleaning out the grime and gore. Best to do it now while I could barely think straight… still, I would need to get some cleaning fluid to remove the crud that was slowing the servos down soon. And I had no idea how to even check if they needed replacement.

"How are you holding up?" An Asari officer asked, causing me to look up from where I sat with a tired wave.

"As well as can be expected really." I snorted in return.

"I've been informed of what happened here today. I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but I've got to ask... have you been taking any drugs?" The officer seemed nice enough, but she came across as wanting to be slightly too involved in business that was none of her concern.

"No." I snapped at her, tracing the edge of a dent where a shot had glanced off the plating. "And what exactly, have you been told?"

"You've had a psychotic break, Mister Greg." She seemed to hesitate slightly before continuing. "I don't want this to be any harder than it has to be, but you probably need a mind healer."

"I hate to break it to you, but that would kill me." When she gave a look of disbelief I explained. "I've got floating mind. It's the entire reason I'm in the situation that I am. About a month and a half ago I was mind-fucked by one of your Ardat-Yakshi."

"So I heard…" She nodded slightly, accepting the point I'd just made. "Still. Even just talking to a mind healer would help your mind become whole again."

"How do you even…?" Was all I got out before she simply gestured to everyone else nearby, almost all of whom were pointedly not looking my way, besides Clank who was glaring darkly at the Asari next to me. It seemed as though my own distrust of her was mirrored in Clank's. "Right. I'll take it under advisement."

"I suppose that's the least I can ask for." She replied. When I pointedly turned back to work on my legs, she let out a quiet sigh before returning to wherever it was that she came from.

It was a few hours later when we were finally able to leave the compound. I had gathered what belongings I could - of which there were remarkably few. It wasn't just myself doing that though, all of the survivors had spent time mourning their losses, gathering what things they could before waiting for the C-Sec shuttle to arrive that would be taking us to the Citadel.

We were headed for the capital of council space now. Victus had a place where we, meaning the ground team, could stay for a few days, but the others would have to find elsewhere to live. As much as I felt for them… We were all in the same situation really. The Nest had been compromised, and now we had to fly the coop. With as much of the compound that was left, it would take far too many resources than we had to rebuild and reinforce our homestead. And as much as Victus wanted to help all of his people, most of his money had been tied up in the Nest.

So... we were leaving.

In any case, I had my own plans to put in motion. Plans that would hopefully set me on a path that would let me fuck with the matriarch something fierce. And maybe help prepare the galaxy for the Reapers along the way.

If I remembered correctly, Barla Von was a financial advisor and emissary of the Shadow Broker. I needed information, I needed a way to strike back at the Matriarch, at Sugorn. And if C-Sec couldn't help me, the Shadow Broker would be able to. At least, that's what I hoped. Despite the fact that I didn't have enough money to my name to buy information from the jumped up Yahg, I was willing to provide an exchange of services. I wanted to get my friend back, before that twisted hag got her blue claws stuck in him.

It wasn't long before we were boarding the shuttles out of there. The door slid shut as we took off at a steady pace, and I managed to catch one last glimpse at the mess that had been my home for the past month and a half.

A couple of buildings had collapsed completely, and there wasn't one visible that hadn't been marred by something, be it an explosion, a fire… one even had the burnt wreck of a shuttle jutting out at a strange angle on the first floor. We should have had defenses in place. Automated turrets, security systems, barricades… We had none of that. Why would we have? For the most part we were left alone by everyone else, Victus had had good contacts with the locals, we ran security, and did a few jobs on the side. That was pretty much the whole of it...

But now that had all changed.

"What a shit show." I muttered quietly to myself as it vanished out of sight behind the armour plated door.

I plonked myself down into one of the seats that they had lining the walls of the shuttle just as I felt the inertial dampeners kicking in while we gained speed. Leaning my head back against the shuttle wall and closing my eyes, I enjoyed the coolness of the metal do wonders in numbing the throbbing that was making itself known again. I felt and heard someone sit down in the seat next to me, and I barely opened one eye to see Valeia copying my actions.

"Goddess that feels nice." She groaned gently as she shifted her weight so that she was slightly slumped. "We'll find them, Greg. By the tides we'll find them, and get them back."

Her voice was more than soothing, and she placed a hand on my thigh in a comforting gesture that I couldn't help but appreciate.

"What model were the shuttles that they were using?" I asked after a short while, opening both of my eyes to look at her.

"They looked like old X9's… Why?" There was concern written on her face as she answered my query. "What are you thinking?"

"If C-Sec doesn't know where the shuttles went, there's bound to be somebody who does." I replied. At the abrupt look of concern on Val's face I hurried to placate her. "Look I'll wait a couple of days so see if there's any news, and if not, then I'll go looking myself."

"You won't be alone in your endeavor, Greg." Clank's rumbling voice seemed to shake the shuttle as his voice disturbed the otherwise quiet air.

"I know, Clank…" I shook my head, "But it's not like everyone's going to be there to help us."

"That just means there'll be more for us to kill." Clank's shark-like grin disturbed me slightly, although I found myself agreeing with the sentiment which slightly surprised myself. Until I remembered what I had promised.

It wouldn't be killing for the sake of killing. It would be killing to protect those who needed protecting, it would be killing to save my friends. And there was still the fact that those whose lives I would end up taking would almost certainly deserve it.

"That there is Clank, that there is." With those words the shuttle fell silent for the few hours it took for us to reach the Citadel, most people too exhausted to really do much except sleep.

We were arriving ahead of our grievously injured, but only by a few hours, which we would need to get through C-Sec headquarters, where we had arrived. Victus' had been in the shuttle ahead of us, along with Jun, Ben and Sel'ama as well as a few of the 'civilian' remainder of the survivors. If nothing else, that meant that the process of getting us onto the Citadel had already begun, even if it only saved us a few minutes.

I wasn't paying attention for most of the process, instead I was looking around at it everything. The walk to the station from the shuttle docks was short, but the view was spectacular. Air cars whizzed by in the distance while lights shone on each arm of the Citadel, revealing them to each contain an enormous city. The purple nebula shone brightly over the tall spires of buildings, casting long shadows that only served to highlight the beauty of the place.

I might have been awestruck if I were in a better mood.

As it was, I stopped for a second or two to take it all in before sighing and carrying on.

"What a beautiful lie." I muttered to myself.

"Did you say something?" Tom asked, turning his head from where he was walking to look at me.

"Huh? Oh no, nothing." I absently replied. He didn't need to know the truth about this place. None of them did, not yet. Now that we were here though… I would need to prepare a diary of sorts, write out everything I knew about the games so that I wouldn't need to keep a mental library of what was canon and what wasn't.

As we walked into the station, there was a fair amount of hustle and bustle going on behind the scenes that we could see, the rest of our group already crowded around the desk of one of the officers on duty. There was a large service elevator at the back of the room that was currently carrying a load of Alliance marines up to whatever level they were going to, a receptionist's desk at the front that looked like it was reinforced to be used as cover should anyone be stupid enough to attack. What caught my eye however, was a large screen that currently showing footage of urban combat as smoke billowed into the air, a new logo visible in one corner. It took me a moment to place it, but the spires in the background of the shot sort of looked like Nos Astra from the games.

" _It's been two months since the Blue Sun's failed attempt to destabilise the Eclipse on Illium with two thirds of their leadership removed."_ What sounded like an Asari spoke from unseen speakers, though her accent was unlike anything I'd heard before. It was sharp, almost cold, nothing like Valeia's smooth tones. " _The culprits behind the attack's, one Chaksin Ul Shaaryak along with his accomplice and wife, Yi'ren Ul Shaaryak were killed by the inhabitants of Illium's own Khar'shan Minor, who, for their own protection will not be named. It's believed that this attempt to overthrow the Eclipse at their main base of operations was to further the Batarian group, 'The Fist of Khar'shan', currently for purposes unknown. Viewers are advised that the following footage may cause distress."_

The images on the screen switched to a different view of the fighting, whereupon a couple of shuttles touched down in what I assumed to be the Eclipse's main compound if the large insignia were any indication.

Out of one of the shuttles emerged an enormous hulking suit of power armour, that even from this distance looked as though it had been cobbled together in a hurry. It was a miracle that whoever was in there was able to stay upright and move in the thing if the mismatching armour panels were anything to go by.

After a short gunfight, in which those who had been attacking the veritable fortress had been obliterated, the hulking form entered the building, accompanied by a few others, including what appeared on the screen as a person-sized blue light. I could only assume the figure was a ludicrously powerful Asari, and I made a mental note to look into weapons that could help me fight Matriarchs.

" _Now that the waters have begun to calm, it is uncertain just what exactly is going to happen next for the mercenary group. I'm Ellana Y'den and this is the Citadel News Network."_

My attention was diverted from the screen for a moment by a passing officer, the Turian shaking his head as he glanced at me.

"Awful stuff. I don't understand why they don't just name the people who took out those Shaaryaks, you know? They've already got bounties on their heads for spirit's sake." The turian said, his orange face paint denoting his clan.

"Staying out of the limelight has its perks you know. If they wanted to get away somewhere, where they wouldn't be recognised immediately, not having their names and faces plastered all across Citadel space would help with that." I replied matter-of-factly.

"You make a good point, human. Stay out of trouble." And with that, the officer strode off, no doubt to return to a mountain of paperwork that seems to be all that the police talk about. That was when I was waved back towards the others by Tom.

"We've been cleared through, let's go."

We began to move as a group, the not-quite two dozen of us moving wearily to what I recognised as a rapid transit lot, where we proceeded to journey into the wards. Part of me wanted to head to the hospital to wait for news of the others, to see if they were going to make it or not, but the ghoulish practice wasn't really a part of any of the alien cultures. In any case, we were all far too exhausted ourselves to warrant waiting for the others to arrive, only for us to then return to Victus' place.

Three cars headed in one direction, vanishing into the upper Tayseri wards as those who weren't staying at Victus' place left to stay at a C-Sec safehouse. They'd be allowed to stay until the investigation ended, at least giving them some time to recover before they had to job and house hunt. The rest of us sped off in a slightly different direction, going to upper Bachjret ward, where we would be staying.

Victus' apartment wasn't particularly luxurious, almost spartan in its design, but it was spacious enough for everyone to have a small area before more permanent housing could be found.

I found a nice quiet corner in one of the back rooms that reminded me a lot of ancient Japan, what with the miniature feng shui garden in its lowered center and the nice wooden flooring that surrounded it. If I tried hard enough, I could almost feel a soft breeze blowing through the room that had the crispness of being in the open air. It didn't actually seem to be a bedroom, but it would do.

Victus himself had entered the room and knelt next to a coffee table with a small pot of what looked like boiling water. "I see you've found a room you like?"

"Yes, thank you. It's very… human." I responded slowly, trying to find the words as my brain fell closer to sleep.

"Quite. I took inspiration from your Japanese culture for this room. I find it has a way of connecting me to the spirits, even all these miles away from Palaven." The pouring of water could be heard as his mandibles quivered. "Would you like some tea?"

"Please." I figured I could do with something to help me relax after the days events, and it might have been the Brit in me, but a nice cup of tea sounded like exactly what I needed.

"There's levo tea's in the cupboard above the sink, help yourself to something you like." I gave a short bow to Victus before heading back through the house to the kitchen, passing several people who were already fast asleep on sofas or on makeshift beds with blankets thrown over them.

Opening the aforementioned cupboard revealed an enormous selection of teas, spread over two shelves, one for dextro and one for levo. Most of the levo teas were Asari, but there were plenty still of human origin. I decided to try an Asari tea that was labeled ' _Sel'muk_ ' before returning to Victus.

He began to brew the tea for me, pouring the still piping hot water into the cup over a small strainer filled with what appeared to be leaves and seeds.

"What happens next?" I found myself asking as he worked.

"We fight back. I thought that much would be obvious." Victus' tired face spread into a weary smile as he looked up at me over the rim of his cup.

"But we still don't know what the Matriarch, and whoever else she's got working for her - which could be almost everybody in the Republics, have planned." I countered. As much as I loathed the idea of inaction at the moment, there was nothing I could do without information.

Knowledge is power - or as the G.I. Joe would say, knowing is half the battle.

"That may be, but she has put those plans into action already." Victus gently reminded. "It won't be long before we know what she's up to."

I exhaled slowly, then shook my head once. "Even that is too long."


	8. Ch 8: Silent Shadows

**A/N:** Hey everyone, the story continues with the beginning of the end of the first act! I'm expecting a few more chapters to cover the rest of this arc and then it's onto the next one! And please, if you enjoyed leave a review! It helps to keep up my motivation to the write the story and I'm interested to see your interpretations and thoughts on what might happen next!

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 **Act 1: Trouble in Paradise**

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 **Chapter 8: Silent Shadows**

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The atmosphere at Victus' place stayed morose for the better part of a week. Valeia had managed to convince me to wait longer than the two days that I had originally planned to wait, helped by the fact that the Bekenstein branch of C-sec had actually managed to find a lead. According to them, the shuttles hadn't left the planet for a day before they were picked up by an old Asari Cruiser whose IFF identified it as the _Tides' Wrath_.

It had been taken out of service, had its weapons stripped and then been sold to a private owner, and I didn't doubt for a second that it belonged to the Matriarch. While everyone in our group agreed with my assumption, the cruiser had disappeared after the shuttles had reached it.

Which left the police at a dead end, since records of who had bought the ship had been so buried that it had taken them most of the week to simply to find them, and even then, the record of the actual sale had been corrupted so that it didn't say who the owner was. Not that _we_ needed any clues as to who owned the thing, but C-Sec wasn't just going to take our word for it when we didn't even know the Matriarch's actual name.

Things weren't great on the other front either. Berrilius had been discharged already, which brought some measure of positivity with it, but Sibus, James and Guy were all still in ward.

Sibus had arguably been the most touch and go out of all of them. While he had been stable for the most part, there was shrapnel that had found itself under his plates that the medics hadn't known about for the better part of a day, whereupon he suddenly went into cardiac arrest due to the foreign materials entering his body and causing an allergic reaction to the metal used in the missiles. He was stable now, but he still needed surgery to replace some of the plates that he lost during the fighting.

James was slightly better, but not by much. His burns had begun to turn septic by the time they'd reached the hospital. The shrapnel that had made it past his armour hadn't helped matters either, requiring him to have immediate surgery before being sterilised, stabilised and transferred across.

And then there was Guy. While his injuries weren't for the most part life threatening, they were seriously life changing. Where he'd hit the wall had broken his back, the armour doing little against the blunt force trauma that he'd experienced. Tom had done a decent enough job of making sure he was stable, which might have been the only reason why he hadn't died from internal bleeding where a couple of his organs had hemorrhaged. As it was, his 'humanity' was going to stop him from ever walking again, possibly even with the use of cybernetics due to the fact that humans simply didn't regenerate in that sort of capacity, and cybernetics would only take him so far in that respect.

Berrilius himself had to have minor surgery, but despite the aches and pains that he still felt, had been discharged from the hospital after a couple of days with strict orders to return if he overexerted himself.

Which brings me to why I was currently stood alone on the presidium, walking around the empty lake to where the Volus, Barla Von, was located.

The Presidium wasn't quite as barren as the first game made out to be, it was more in line with the areas you could walk through in the third game if my memory was to serve me correctly. It was filled with multiple little stores that sold the highest quality trinkets that money could buy to people who looked like they all had more money than sense.

Of course, I didn't care for any of that. Instead, my focus was on the almost blast-shield like appearance of the door I was approaching.

When I was stood outside of it the door slid open with a smooth swish, revealing a moderately long office that was sparsely decorated, a couple of statues sat behind a heavy looking wooden desk, where a Volus sat, his eyes glued to several datapads that looked like they held various stock values of different things.

"Ahh… Earth-clan…" Barla Von said, his suit's goggles never moving from the datapads. "What can I… Help you with, today?" His rasping voice was surprisingly silky, despite the horrible noise that his respirator made with each breath he took.

"I understand that you're someone I can get information from, Mr. Von." I responded as coolly as I could, although the enormity of just what it was I was giving myself to made itself known.

"I'm afraid… You are mistaken, Earth-clan…" Barla Von's eyes drifted up to find my own, my gaze never wavering from his.

"I know you work for the broker, there's no need to hide it." I took a deep breath to still myself before carrying on. "I need information, in return I am willing to provide my services for the length of time that he sees fit, as payment for said information."

"I see… One moment, Earth-Clan." With that, the Volus stepped down from his desk, retreated to the back wall where he activated his omnitool and shortly after a doorway revealed itself in the back of the office. "Wait… here."

I did as asked, leaning against the wall as the hidden door slid shut again. No doubt there was some sort of soundproofing system in place in the room since there wasn't a sound coming through despite the thinness of the walls.

I didn't have to wait long before he returned, his stout frame making its way around his desk as he held out a datapad.

"A representative will meet you at the location provided in two standard hours. You will discuss the details of your business there. Good day, Earth-clan." Barla Von retreated back around his desk as I glanced at the contents of the datapad. It was blank except for a single address, the networking capabilities of the device completely removed.

"One more thing, Mr. Von." I said, causing him to look up again as he sat at his desk. "I understand you have a way with money…"

The next hour passed rather rapidly. I used what little money I had earned in the past month and got Barla Von to manage investments that he would make with it, for a small cut of whatever he made to give him incentive to actually make me more money that I will hopefully be able to use to get better gear et al, in order to improve my chances of surviving the coming storm that is the Reapers, to say nothing of what I wanted to do to the Matriarch, that spirits' cursed bitch.

My deal with the Volus took the better part of an hour and a half to make and be agreed upon, which left me moving in a hurry to get halfway across the Citadel so I could meet with the representative, shoving the datapad into a backpack that I'd taken with me.

The location I was given ended up being a nice little cafe on Zakera ward where I sat and ordered a traditional green tea while I waited for whatever was going to happen to begin. The cafe was open door, like many of the shops on the Citadel were, and the neon lights of the ward created a sort of zen atmosphere that was shielded by a pair of drapes that covered the normally empty doorway.

"Morley, was it?" A Turian distracted me from my observations as an Asari arrived and placed my tea in front of me with a smile.

"Yes, thanks." I replied to the two respective people who'd entered my immediate vicinity.

"I'll have a small Traxom tea please." The Turian asked the waitress just as she was about to head back behind the small bar. She departed with another smile and the Turian sat opposite myself. "I hear you're after some information." She - I began to realise as I looked more closely at her - began. "In exchange for your services. What services can you provide?"

"Does it matter?" I asked quickly, possible a little too quickly as her mandibles fluttered slightly in a small smile.

"Yes, my employer doesn't give out information for free, and the services that he requires can be… unsettling." She looked at me almost with an almost pitiful gaze, but masked it over when I rolled my eyes.

"I can deal with killing; as long as it's justified." I amended my initial statement as the thought of Daesh's broken head popped into my mind. His death was arguably justified as well but… maybe not quite so violently. "If I told you what I'm after, will you be able to help me?"

She waved her hand as though to get me to continue on, to which I obliged.

"My friends were taken from Bekenstein recently. An Asari who goes simply by 'The Matriarch', and her order of brainwashed bimbos assaulted the small community I was living in. Most of us were taken or killed. C-sec tracked the shuttles they left on, and connected them to a ship called the the 'Tide's Wrath'. I want to know where it went."

"You want to go on a rescue mission?" She seemed to mull over the information I had given her for a while before nodding. "Such a noble cause… for a human." Again, she smirked as she spoke, but I didn't rise to it, instead I merely gave her a droll look which she took as her cue to continue. "As long as you understand what you're getting yourself into, human."

Her own tea was placed on the table in front of her and she thanked the Asari waitress before taking a delicate sip from it. My own was half empty by now, its calming effect waning slightly as the liquid drained.

"There is a test for you to prove your usefulness to my employer before he will hand any information over to you. While you complete this task our sources will be gathering any information that is pertinent to your request." She took out another datapad, not dissimilar to the one I had received from Barla Von, except this one didn't solely contain a location.

As I looked over it she finished her tea and stood, signalling the Asari over to hand her a credit chit. "The tea is on me, Mr. Morley. We'll be waiting." With that, she left, leaving me alone in the cafe.

The datapad had a few short sentences on it, instructions that told me what I was supposed to do. Supposedly, there was an Asari by the name of Ceil Drimi who was dealing in some fairly illicit stuff - by Citadel standards anyway. A quick search of who she was revealed her to be a diplomat for the Salarian Union.

So she was someone of some importance, that much was a given, otherwise why else would I be asked to find out what it was she was doing?

I'm sure the Shadow Broker didn't care for the dealings of underfoot figures.

I wasn't sure where whatever was happening was going to take place, so my first port of call was to find Ceil and tail her as subtly as I could. I didn't doubt for a second that she would be on guard, but as long as I could follow her I would find out what she was up to. I was suddenly wistful for a tracking device of some sort to plant on her person, then I wouldn't need to worry about being seen…

I thanked the Asari for the tea before leaving myself and grabbing a rapid transit to the most obvious place to start looking, which was the Presidium embassy area. The datapad held some useful information that would help me track her down fairly easily, like which places were her usual haunts so that I could start looking there. Fortunately for myself, they were all within sight of one another, all of them not too far from the Salarian embassy which itself was within the lower part of the Council's tower.

I made it to a bench roughly midway between the different areas she might be at and studied the datapad more. There was an image of the suspect in question as well as a few descriptive sentences that I made the focus of my attention. She was fairly plain, for an Asari... In terms of her features, anyway. Her markings was what made her stand out in my opinion; she had quite a short nose, but the markings she wore seemed to elongate it slightly as they ran across it and under her eyes in what could be taken as a mesmerising pattern if she looked at you in the right way.

I knew who I was looking for, and roughly where she'd be, so now, all that was left was to wait.

I passed the time mostly people watching, trying to overhear some of the conversations that were going on around me as I relaxed into the bench, trying to appear as someone on a break. I'm not quite sure how long I was there for, but it must have been a couple of hours before I finally saw her.

She was just coming out of a gift shop which I could only assume was the pretext for her not being in office in the hours after the Citadel paused for lunch. She was calmly, but quickly, walking towards the wards access and I waited a while before checking my omnitool as though to check the time before I too, stood and moved at a more leisurely pace towards the wards.

She got there before I did, and took the lift to the connecting area. Thankfully, the Citadel wasn't exactly how I remembered it being in the games and the elevator that Ceil took wasn't the only one there. A few seconds passed before it arrived and a few people disembarked, a couple others entering the lift with myself.

The lift was silent for a few moments until a short chime was heard and an Asari voice began to speak. ' _The war against the Blue Suns Network in the Terminus continues to progress, with Hegemony involvement making the Network's survival seriously in doubt. In related news, a Hegemony cruiser rumored to be captained by a member of House Balak was forced to make a controlled crash on the Blue Sun stronghold of Korlus. Expect developments.'_

I definitely didn't remember anything like that happening in the games… And wasn't Balak the Batarian terrorist? From what I could remember Korlus was basically a giant dustball covered in shipwrecks and junk, but it was also where Grunt was forged. Things were beginning to not add up, there were things that simply shouldn't be happening. Then again, I shouldn't be here, and no doubt there were other people like myself who were having an affect on what was happening across the galaxy. Not to mention the head bitch herself.

My musings were cut short by a quiet _ding_ as the elevator ride finished. I pushed myself up off the wall that I'd leant against and strode out the elevator, trying to be subtle in the search for my quarry. As it was, I found her turning into a small waiting area a few meters ahead of myself.

Luckily for myself there was a small vendor's stand where a Turian woman was selling small items of jewellery.

A small treated leather bracelet with a small planet caught my eye. Something about it clicked with my previous life, and considering I was trying to blend in, I browsed through the rest of her stock, keeping one eye on the Asari I was following. She was looking around now, and I wasn't sure if she thought she'd been followed or if she was waiting for someone else.

It turned out to be the latter as she was met by a Salarian who was accompanied by another Asari. The Salarian looked as though he smelled something awful, though that may have simply been the way that he looked. The Asari on the other hand had an aggressive eye on her and her head was swivelling around as though to dare anyone to look at them… or like she was searching for anyone who was paying attention.

I kept my head down and browsed the stall, trying to keep an ear out for what they were saying, but even in this transitional area the noise of the wards made it hard to discern more than a couple of words at a time.

I bought the bracelet I wanted and thanked the Turian shopkeep when she helped me put it on my wrist, turning away from the stall to see the two parties going their separate ways. I waited a few seconds before making my way into the wards proper, no longer tailing Ceil but the Salarian and accomplice that she'd been talking to.

I tracked them through the wards, exploring the area for myself as well, although not as much as I would have liked. At one point, the Salarian had stopped at what looked to be a sort of alien chemist and I had a chance to download a map of the ward from Avina, the Citadel's VI interface.

That actually turned out to be the best thing that I could have done as we moved further away from the presidium, to a point where we must have been half-way along the arm, the light of the nebula entirely hidden behind multi levelled walkways and skyscrapers that towered above. The passageways varied between being crowded and virtually empty as they started winding through the back alleys. I tried not to follow them explicitly, trying to anticipate their route so that there was less chance of them seeing me. Fortunately for myself, it also made me aware of the other two people who were tailing the Salarian and their Asari cohort.

One was a human, the other, an Asari. Both were evidently wearing light armour and were almost certainly armed, although the Asari looked more accustomed to combat than the human did.

The human woman looked surprisingly young to be wearing armour, which did little to improve upon her image. She looked as though she was of egyptian descent - her light brown skin and almost onyx black hair giving off the impression. Despite her apparent exotic lineage, she was undeniably plain in her appearance.

The same could not be said for her Asari compatriot. She too was short, though not quite as small as the human, her purplish skin and red markings highlighting the area around her eyes and making her high cheekbones flourish.

I wasn't quite as concerned about them noticing me following their mark than I should have been looking back on it, but at the time, I assumed correctly that they would overlook my presence.

The Salarian we were both following led us back to a warehouse in the lower part of the wards where there were two Turians stood guard outside the main entrance. The foot traffic here wasn't too busy, but there were still people passing by which I used as my cover to case the building, trying to find a way in.

I found my answer down an alleyway, a floor above me where a fire escape from the adjacent building ran parallel to a roofed balcony. Checking to make sure that I hadn't been seen or followed going into the alley. The escape wasn't lowered, but it didn't take too much effort to sprint at the wall, taking a few steps up it before leaping back off the wall and catching the tail of the escape.

It was more effort to haul myself up without being heard, but the weeks I'd spent recovering from my operation had put me back to pre-accident levels of fitness.

I was cautious as I walked up the fire escape so that I was even with the balcony; I didn't want someone to notice me heading up the escape route and the last thing I wanted to do was make any noise. Especially if someone decided to come out onto the balcony, which I could now see was set up as a sort of lounge although nobody was currently using it.

I made the leap across easily enough, my upper half catching on the ledge while my legs dangled off the side of the building momentarily. Hauling myself across quietly wasn't easy, but I thought I managed it all right… rather stupidly of me, as it turned out.

There was a table with a few chairs around it, the tabletop littered with drinks, some sort of cigarette and a couple of datapads. Picking up the pads showed me that they were locked, and unfortunately I had yet to figure out how to hack things, so I threw them into my bag instead. I was slinging it back onto my back as the doors opened and an Asari was snarling and throwing a blue orb before I could even react.

It that struck me in the chest and flung me into the warehouse, which wasn't exactly a comfortable trip. I flew several meters, slamming against the wall of a long corridor as the Asari began shouting, alerting others to my presence.

"Shit…" I muttered to myself, coughing as I picked myself up off the ground in time to get out the way of the Asari's next biotic attack; some kind of narrow push I thought. When that barely missed she closed in, and we began to do a sort of dance that had me backing down the corridor, shifting out the way of each of her attacks and drawing more and more frustrated noises from her as we moved towards the end of the hallway.

"Just...Stand...Still!" She bellowed, finally connecting a hit that threw me past the others who were coming to her aid, and over the railing of a walkway that overlooked the storage area of the warehouse. My fall was broken by me landing on a stack of canisters, catching the edge of the pile, a red mist erupting around me as two of the containers I'd landed on shattered.

The dust promptly got everywhere. I breathed it in before I could even think about holding my breath, and it coated my eyes, making me blink rapidly and cough uncontrollably at the same time.

My immediate thought was red sand… And low and behold a blue aura began to surround me as the workers caught up to me again.

"Heh...hehe...hahaha!" I couldn't stop myself from laughing. It was a giddy laugh, as though I'd become a kid who's just been told he could have whatever he wanted.

Something felt… off, about me. And it wasn't the fact that I was beginning to worry my alter ego was starting to show himself. I felt… stronger, like I was reaching into untapped potential. The blue aura that had begun to surround me slowly gained traction until it had turned into a storm of warpfire that rolled down my arms, my hands contorting themselves into claws as laughter seemed to echo around me in the fashion of an arch-villain.

I was seeing everything, but it was as though I could no longer control what I was doing... And that was how I knew he was back. I began freaking out almost at once, though it didn't seem to help. The person who'd I'd become a week ago when I'd blacked out was very much real, and they were very much in control of my body. I wasn't claustrophobic per se, but at that moment I had never felt more trapped, and more desperate to get out.

C-calm down. I, no _he_ , thought to myself. It was a disconcerting feeling, having a conversation with someone else within your own mind, and it distracted me from the panic attack I was on the cusp of having enough for him to take another quick huff of the dust.

My laughter seemed to give the workers pause, even as they closed in on me, a pair of krogan the only ones seemingly willing to approach the red mist before it had finished settling. Unwilling, I took another deep breath of the mist, as though I was breathing fresh air for the first time, a sort of happy sigh punctuating the elation I felt.

Claws clamped shut into fist as the laughter died and I felt my expression twist into something more sinister. I was outnumbered six to one, two of which were Asari, two Krogan, one Turian and one Salarian. And I felt _alive_.

I knew it was living vicariously, and it was most likely some sort of side effect to whatever drug we'd accidentally ingested, but it was enough for me to stop wanting to break free from behind my alter ego and let him take the reigns freely.

The Asari both had lit up the same as myself, their own glow's more subdued, but still present. The Krogan were still approaching, and were almost upon me, the Turian and the Salarian both holding makeshift weapons.

"So, th-th-thanks for the f-f-free sample guys. What is this stuff by-by-by the way?" He… I asked.

"A junky?" The deep baritone of a Krogan scoffed as the other began to chuckle in what would have been a menacing way were I not literally out of my mind at the moment.

A quick check of the canisters had the letters 'MX3' written boldly on the surface. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't place where I knew it from. One of the krogan - the one who'd scoffed took that as his cue to grapple me.

Which didn't go the way he thought it would.

His hand went for my arm, the warpfire setting off his Krogan regeneration factor as his meaty tri-fingered paw wrapped around my bicep. The moment his hand grabbed my arm was the moment I put him in an arm lock. My arm wrapping around his own, breaking his grip and catching his hand under my armpit before collecting it with my other hand, the arm controlling his snaking its way to his shoulder where I began to apply pressure, reinforced by my biotics which seemed stronger than usual.

"D-don't touch me." I whispered into the Krogan's ear, the warpfire around my arms beginning to overpower his healing ability with it's constant burn. "You should T...take me out to dinner first." I laughed at my own joke.

I could feel the Krogan's strength trying to overpower my own, the uproarious laughter cut short as my slackening grip was forced to return.

"What are you doing here human?" One of the Asari asked.

"Oh I think th-th-that would be obvious, d-d-don't you?" At the lack of response I… _He_ , decided to elaborate. "Well, yo-you're boss is a very naughty man. A-a-and I want to know what it is he's got h-here."

The second Krogan had evidently had enough of seeing his friend corralled the way he was and let out a bellow as he charged. He was still a good few meters away from me, giving me the time to react that I needed.

I fixed my grip on the Krogan's arm spun him around once, and launched him with a biotically enhanced throw into the oncoming worker. The collision resounded of the walls and made the floor of the warehouse shake, the containers shaking in place, one or two of them toppling over, though there were no new mist clouds.

"I-i-if you don't want to get h-hurt, I suggest that you tell me where your boss' o-ooffice is." Apparently, the threat of violence doesn't really work too well, at least against the Krogan it didn't, both of whom were in the process of rising, dusting themselves off and turning and charging me again.

I managed to erect a barrier to stop most of the charging Krogan, but I was still rocked backwards a few feet, which was only compounded when the Asari launched into their own attacks as well.

I was being forced backwards, each blow making me strain further, a pounding headache slowly building as I used my biotic reserves. The drugs had evidently helped, but two giant Krogan pounding on me plus two Asari hurling biotic strikes was evidently more than I could handle. I managed to save myself however, by spotting the Salarian from earlier with his Asari bodyguard through the glass windows of what must have been an office room that overlooked the storage area of the warehouse.

I got out of my combat stance with a cocky grin, gave a mock salute and without really thinking about it, I performed a biotic charge through the window, slamming into the Asari as I did so, shards of glass reflecting the blue iridescence that dissipated as the move came to an end.

Smashing through the glass felt as though I was breaking through the surface of water as I once again took control of my body. Unprepared, the Asari had slammed back into the wall, the Salarian shaken by the sudden action.

He held a datapad in one hand, and there was another on a nearby desk. I snatched the one on the desk before the Salarian had time to react, but I wasn't quick enough to steal the one from the alien's hands before they pressed a button on their omnitool, an alarm springing to life throughout the warehouse.

"Shit." I cursed before I body checked the Salarian, knocking them to the floor and collecting the datapad before shoving both into my bag. "Gotta get out of here…"

I swung it back onto my back just as a door opened ahead of me, two more Asari appearing before me, a look of rage on their faces. The tinkling of glass behind me made me flick my head so that I could see one of the two previous Asari standing where I'd made a hole in the window.

The two Asari by the door moved in and I felt myself being submerged again, my berserker taking hold again as the Asari began to show their biotics. He wanted to fight these people, but there were too many of them to take on by myself at the moment. One or two I could handle, possibly even three or four at once, but not this many.

Thankfully my alter ego seemed to agree with me.

As they entered into the office I ran and leapt at them, both of them dodging out the way of my body as I corkscrewed my way between them and landed in a tucked roll that held my momentum as I took off running, riding up a wall as I turned a corner to find myself in familiar territory, the corridor I'd been tossed down coming into view.

As I ran I was forced to perform a gauntlet as biotic attacks were sent my way, and even a few pistol rounds were let loose from behind me. I had to dislodge a Turian from my way when he wouldn't move in our game of chicken, the heavy omniwrench he was carrying held threateningly. I launched myself into the air as I neared him, too quick for the swing that he was about to take and landing in a crouch almost on his shoulders, tackling him to the floor, grabbing his head and slamming it down before cartwheeling off of him, not slowing down as I desperately made my way out of the building.

The small bit of violence doing enough for my alternate personality that he continued with our escape.

I wasn't impeded any further on my way back to the balcony, however the people chasing me were hot on my tail. The doors to the outside opened and I ran through them, leaping across the gap back to the fire escape and scaling my way down before falling to the floor, rolling back onto my feet. A quick look behind me let me see three Asari poking their heads over the balcony before calmly throwing themselves over it, using their biotics to control their descent.

With that, I took off again, storming my way through the back alleys, trying to lose my tail. I kept at it for what felt like forever, sliding around corners, leaping over seemingly bottomless drops, even falling through some of the drops to gain some distance between me and the Asari chasing me. Eventually I made it to a rapid transit station, all but diving into one of the cars and giving it a random destination.

It took off a few seconds before the Asari arrived at the taxi rank, my heavy panting slowly calming as they turned away in anger. Presumably that meant that they didn't know which car I had gotten into, and with no way of knowing where I was going, there was no point in continuing the chase. I had made it.

Thirty minutes later, and two car swaps later, and I was outside the door to Victus' apartment. The sweat dried off my brow, my breathing back to normal, even if there had been a couple of times when I'd thought I was still being followed.

Valeia opened the door, a look of concern on her face. "Where have you been? You said you would be gone for a few hours, not the whole entire day!"

"I-I-I'm getting information!" I cackled to myself, marching in straight past her to see the others relaxing inside. "J-jun! Can I have y-y-your help please?" I called out to currently the only friendly Salarian I knew.

"Yes? What do you need?" He said as he neared me, a wary look in his eye. No doubt he could hear that the 'other' me was taking control for the moment.

"I n-n-need to ha-ha-hack these." I said, pulling out the datapads that I'd stolen and showing them to him.

* * *

 **Reviews:**

Thedarknesswithin96: That is entirely inevitable in the mass effect-verse, especially so in Kat-killerV's version of events! I'm just hoping he won't be too horribly scarred by it all


	9. Ch 9: Answers

**A/N:** Sorry for this chapter being so late everyone, holiday followed by birthday celebrations made me put this story on hold for a while, but I'm back now. Thanks again to Katkiller-V for being an absolute machine and for letting me use his ideas to write my own story.

I'd just like to say that reviews really help me to keep motivated to write this story as it lets me know people are reading it - no matter if the feedback is good or bad, whether its a full essay on why you disliked a certain aspect of the story i'm telling or a mere sentence saying that you're enjoying it.

This chapter is a little shorter than usual, but it's acting more like a bridge, so you can expect chapters of a more regular length to resume hereafter.

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Act I: Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Answers**

* * *

It didn't take long to break through the locks on the datapads. For Jun, anyway.

It was roughly the same amount of time as it took for me to wrangle my alter ego away again, the disappearance of his brash disposition leaving the rest of the team feeling slightly more secure than they had been when I'd come in through the door. The drugs had also begun to leave my system, leaving me feeling slightly drained and a tad nauseous, which didn't really help my mood but I grabbed a drink and something to eat which seemed to pick me up again.

I was still exhausted, just less so… and being in control of my body again was practically a drug in itself.

Jun was still giving me the occasional wary glance as he set the datapads on the counter next to me before marching quickly away again, returning with a couple of datapads of his own.

Two of the datapads held the information that was actually useful, while the other two… not so much. The contents that were pertinent to my agreement with the Shadow Broker were a manifest log detailing the 'what' and the 'how' of Ceil's less than legal dealings, with the other being a series of messages between her and the Salarian who I now knew as a Mrs. Sigin Yoljaa, which came as a surprising development.

I mean… I knew that Salarian men and women generally looked pretty similar but…

The other two datapads were of little to no use to me. One was a diary of sorts, written by what seemed like one of the Krogan workers, while the other was a hard issue of Fornax - Drell edition.

I'd retreated out of the main room to read the contents of the datapads, something which I'm sure made the others a little more comfortable.

I couldn't blame them. It was not as though I enjoyed sharing my head with someone quite so ready to start hitting things myself, let alone be a possible target for the angry personality. Sooner or later we'd have to work out a way to fix the mess that was my head, preferably before I did something I would end up regretting.

But that was a problem for a different day. For now, I had a lead on where my friends were. I had passed the broker's test, or at least I thought I had anyway, so I still had to get back in touch with the Turian woman.

"What happened?" Tom asked from the edge of the indoor zen garden after perhaps ten minutes had passed. "You had another episode, that much is obvious but… what've you been up to?" There was worry in his voice. It wasn't unfounded, that was sure, but it was frustrating to hear all the same.

"I did what I thought was best." I said calmly, gesturing for him to enter and sit with me by the coffee table, holding up the manifest as he approached.

He took it, and quickly skimmed through the contents, looking at me as he took a seat by the coffee table. "What is all this?" He queried. "Minagen X3? What's that?"

"It's a biotic enhancing drug." I told him. There had been a reason why something had clicked in my head when I'd seen the canisters. "At first I thought it was red sand, but this doesn't give the user biotics, it simply makes them stronger."

"Sounds pretty useful. Why hasn't any government put it out on a military contract or something?" Tom asked as his eyebrows raised.

"Because it's toxic as all hell." I said, handing him the other datapad "I think I nearly overdosed on it while I was in there… not sure how I'm all right to be honest."

"In where Greg?" Tom was now staring intently at me, but it hadn't been him who'd asked the question. Berrilius had shuffled into the room as well now.

"I was going to get to that." I mumbled as he too took a seat at the coffee table. "C-sec have lost all their leads. I know that they're trying to track where the ship went and all but come on, this is The Matriarch we're dealing with here." I began my explanation, only to be cut off before I could really get going

"So you went to someone else?" Berrilius filled in, realisation dawning on his plated features. "You didn't did you?"

"I did. I went to the broker." Berrilius let out a sort of frustrated breath while Tom just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Oh Greg, why? You don't have the money to pay for information from that kind of person. And it's the _Shadow Broker_." Tom's observations were made in a scathing tone, which annoyed me to no end.

"How long have we been here, Tom?" I asked angrily.

"What does-"

"How. Long?" I interrupted him, forcefully repeating myself.

"A week."

"Exactly. What have we done in that week?" The rhetorical question didn't need to be answered, but I went and answered it anyway. "We've done fucking nothing. I get that we've got wounded, I get that. I really do, but while our friends have been taken from us and could be literally half way across the goddamn _galaxy_ by now, it could even be another week before we make it to them _if_ , and I mean _if_ , the Broker pulls through and gets me the information soon, and they're fairly close by." Both Tom and Berrilius seemed to shrink slightly under my beratement. "Yeah, it probably was a dumb move on my part, but you know what? I'm tired of being here, sat with my thumb up my ass while The Matriarch gets away with this shit. And if it means doing something stupid now that will get results, I'm doing it. You don't have to be happy with it."

My anger rolled off of me in waves of heat, and for a second I thought I was going to slip under my alter again, but I managed to keep control for the moment. I took back the datapads and marched myself out of the room before they could respond. Heading towards the exit, I stopped to pick up my bag on the way before slinging it over my shoulder, the files I needed stowed away within as I tried to focus on my breathing to keep calm. The last thing I needed right now was another episode.

Tom caught up to me near the door, his voice somewhere between annoyed and worried. "Greg! Where are you going?"

"I'm getting answers." I replied as I opened the door, not turning around fully as I spoke to him. It might have been petulant, but at that moment I didn't care much.

I set out for the second time that day, though instead of going back to the Presidium, I decided to return to the cafe where I'd met with the Turian agent. It was in a predominantly Asari area of the citadel, which meant that the 'days' in this area of the Citadel were generally longer, as the locals tended to both stay awake and sleep for longer than what I was used to.

All of that meant that there were still people going about their business by the time I got back to the cafe that I'd been given the task in. A small smile and a nod to the Asari behind the bar as I took a seat in a different spot so I could people watch while I waited. Said wait turned out to be a surprisingly short amount of time.

They must have been keeping tabs on me... That or the Asari behind the bar is also on their payroll.

And now I was on edge. Informants could be anywhere.

The female Turian I'd met earlier sat next to me, the both of us facing out the shop window, watching couples drift lazily by, a few Turians marching from store to store no doubt looking for one particular item.

"I found out who she's working with, and what they're bringing onto the Citadel." I said with a glance. "They'll probably be moving their stock or something now, trying to find a more secure location or something, so don't pay too much attention to the warehouse number on the manifest." I pulled out the datapad with the details on it out of my bag and placed it in front of us on the bench, whereupon she took it and opened it up, studying the contents for a few moments.

"Good work." Her subharmonics purred at me. "And who was she working with?" I was already pulling the second datapad out of my bag, putting it under her nose. "Sigin Yoljaa? Not a name I've heard before," she muttered quietly to herself before turning her head to look at me. "You've proven yourself useful. Here's what we've found on your runaway ship. And your new omnitool."

She smirked slightly as she laid the omnitool on the table while I narrowed my eyes at it. "Let me guess, it's got encrypted communications preprogrammed into it, along with what… military grade capacitors, omnigel storage… Am I missing anything?"

Instead of answering me however, she merely twitched a mandible in amusement before standing to leave. "Take it, good luck on your rescue mission." She made to leave but halted a few meters away. "Do try not to die, it would be a shame to have your skills wasted." And with that, she was gone. I slipped off the omnitool I'd bought for myself a month ago and placed it onto my other wrist, replacing it with the broker tool on the table.

It took a few seconds for the omnitool to start up, a small glowing panel showing that it was coding itself to my genetic sequence before the tool unlocked and was ready to use. I flicked through all the functions it had, turning the bright orange colour into green turquoise that was easier on my eyes.

I had been mostly correct about what functions the omnitool already had programmed into it. Encrypted communications, military specs that even though were probably baseline were still miles beyond the civilian model omnitool that I had bought previously. There were also a couple of brute force hack programs that were embedded into the tool. It would make things easier for me by far, but I doubted it would be very subtle. Right now though, that was fine by me.

There was a single file left. When I opened it, reams of information scrolled in front of my eyes, the specifications of the ship, it's service record - what battles it had taken part in and what it had done during those fights. Followed by its sale several times, the most recent of which was to an Asari, though her name had been erased from the record. Its movements over the past year were also there. I wondered where the information had come from before I spotted the black box serial number below the list. There were quite a few places that came up more than once on the list, and I had to guess that our destination would be one of those since it's movements over the past two weeks weren't known yet.

I picked up my things and left.

Instead of heading back to everyone at the apartment, I decided to go to the hospital. I wanted to let them know what was going to happen.

I had just reached the Presidium when a hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. Immediately I was on the defence, snapping my arms up as a familiar Asari stood in front of me, very much in my personal space.

"I thought I recognised you, human." Ceil Drimi said, an angry look on her face.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I replied, trying somewhat successfully to sound bored as I lowered my arms again, turning away to resume walking to the hospital.

"You were following me yesterday." She accused, narrowing her eyes at me as she reached up to grab my arm and stop me from leaving.

"Really? Why would I do that?" I brushed her hand off my chest and carried on walking only to be stopped again when she simply grabbed my shoulder and hauled me around.

"You're not hard to spot human, remember that." She all but growled the words. I rolled my eyes in response and waved her away, moving on once again, trying not to show my nerves as I did. This time she didn't stop me, though I waited for nearly a minute before I let out a huff of air and released the fake oblivion from my expression.

She had recognised me. That wasn't good, not at all. I began to mentally berate myself, of course she would fucking notice me, she wasn't an idiot and I'm not Sam Fisher or some other stealth agent who lives in a videogame where people don't look around. Further, she was a damned criminal, of course she would have been on edge.

Still, it was too late to do anything about it . I would just have to be more careful in the future.

Fortunately for my sanity, the rest of the journey to the hospital went without further incident. I'd been there beforehand and the nurse on station checked me in before waving me through to the ward where my friends were being held.

The door opened as I approached it, and I saw that Victus was inside talking quietly to James and Guy. They all glanced at me as I entered, the two humans smiling weakly while Victus' mandibles widened in greeting.

I returned a small smile before I pulled up a chair and sat with them.

James had had most of the burns on his body grafted, and you could barely tell that they were there… in the areas that were covered at least. Some of them were still bandaged but would likely be left to heal naturally. Guy… Guy was still bedridden, but at least he could move his arms now, even if it was an obvious struggle for him to do so. Sibus was sleeping, but thankfully it was due to the medications that he'd been put on according to Victus. Even so, looking at him showed he was… better, if not actually healed. His plates were still cracked and looked worn, but at least they had begun to regrow.

"I think I know where they are." I broke the news to the three of them with baited breath, waiting for their reaction. Victus looked… stoic, and nodded calmly. I wasn't sure if he was disappointed in my choice or not, but it didn't matter right now. James and Guy had slightly different reactions. Guy was resigned. He knew that he wouldn't be able to go with us, not any more. Still, there was a flicker of anger that lay behind his eyes that I knew was aimed at The Matriarch and her people. James on the other hand sat upright in a bolt, his eyes intense as they searched my own for any hints of deception.

Not that there were any, but there was a desperate edge to his look.

"How?" James asked, his voice sounded like cut glass and it was obvious he was in need of water, something that Victus gently handed to him.

"I made a choice. It probably wasn't the best one, but it's done now." I activated my omnitool and sent the information to Victus' before I showed James and Guy. "This is everything that the Shadow Broker gave me on the _Tides' Wrath_." James looked at me in disbelief for a moment before nodding, while Guy groaned quietly at the mention of the broker.

"These planets… you thinking she's got holdouts there?" James asked as he pointed at the locations that I'd highlighted - one's that had appeared multiple times on the list.

"Yeah, I do. But they could be held at any of these planets. We've got to narrow it down by process of elimination. And I'll need everyone's help to do that, even if people think I am an idiot."

"Dealing with the Shadow Broker is never a good idea, Greg." James sighed. "But... I think you did the right thing here. You used what you could and now we've at least got some idea of where they've taken everyone."

I bowed my head at James' light beratement, but I at least knew that I'd done the right thing. I'd given us hope that they were going to be alright.

The conversation turned to what sort of resistance we might be expected to face at a Matriarch installation, and it seemed like the barest of minutes before a nurse entered and administered medication to the three.

Myself and Victus took that as our cue to leave, excusing ourselves and making our way out of the hospital.

"Are you happy with your decision?" Victus asked after we had climbed into an aircar at the nearest rapid transit station. His tone didn't betray his opinion either way, which I appreciated.

"Yes and No." I huffed. "I don't really want to deal with the Shadow Broker. And I have no idea for how long he's going to want me to be under his employ, but I couldn't sit around and wait any longer. I had to do _something_."

"I'm not passing judgement, merely asking a question." Victus responded calmly, glancing away from the cars and buildings that were flashing by to look at me.

"I'll find a way out. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." I was resigned. I'd trapped myself for sure, but hopefully by doing so my friends would be safe. He nodded slowly and I breathed a quiet sigh. And besides, it wasn't as if I'd dug myself too deep yet… I hoped.

"I suppose we've got some detective work to do." Victus' mandible twitched as we left the aircar, the short walk to the house passing in relative silence until we re-entered... whereupon we were practically assaulted by questions. Or I was, at least.

"Look," I shouted over the din. "I've got a list of places that her ship has been to in the past year. We need to do some work and figure out which is the one that our friends are being held at, and then we need to get our asses there to save them."

I pinged the file to all of them, letting them scroll through the information and watching them come to similar conclusions that I had gotten to.

"It's been going to a few of these places quite regularly." Sel'ama muttered out loud. "These two, Taizu and Bellatis, they're about three days travel apart, looking at the records. One could be a supply station?"

"Maybe, what sector are they in?" Berrilius asked, his own eyes glued to his omnitool.

"Traverse." Came the reply from Jun not moments later, the holographic panels of a console practically surrounding him as he looked up planet locations, made calculations and gathered what available intel there was seemingly simultaneously.

"Should we be looking for planets in the Republics?" I asked tentatively.

"That's… Not a bad idea actually." Valeia supported.

"Two of the most visited planets are in the Republics," Jun immediately notified us. "Both in neighbouring systems." Our omnitools bleeped in sync as Jun sent a link to us. "More planets in the Republics than anywhere else, but most are isolated, away from commonly used space."

"B'allmar and Arkinnus?" I read the names of the planets as though they were a question. "Any info on either of them?"

"Not much, just climate, size, orbit length. Standard information. Arkinnus seems to be the more temperate of the two - cooler average temperature, thick band of forest around the equator, lots of water."

"Sound promising." Ben chipped in, his demeanor quietly hopeful, but there was an edge to it that left me with a pretty good idea of how he was feeling. "How soon can we get there?"

"We won't be able to leave for another couple of days at least. We'd have to find transport for all of us, not to mention the fact that The Matriarch might have patrols going around that space so we'd need to be careful in our approach. That and.. Well, we don't exactly have the right sort of gear to go and take on a facility at the moment, no matter who owns it." I pointed out. I didn't want to be the stick in the mud, but I would much rather rescue our friends and still be alive at the end of all of this, instead of all of us getting killed - which presumably was the whole reasoning for the attack on the compound anyway.

I was in a rush, sure, but if I'd already screwed myself I wanted to be sure that our rescue mission actually _rescued_ our friends.

"Leave the transport to me." Victus said confidently, to which the others nodded. "Jun, see if you can get us a route and if you can, a patrol schedule so we know how long we'll have to move."

"On it." Jun said quickly, wiping away almost all of the panels that surrounded him before quickly bringing up a load more.

"Valeia, Berrilius, do you still know the Armax dealer on Zakera?" Victus asked. He had taken control of the situation, and I let him. I didn't really know much on the specifics of planning a raid of this nature, but I could guess at the broad strokes.

"Yeah, I've kept in contact." Berrilius said. "He's moved around a fair bit recently, but I'll send him a message, see where he's set up now." The scarred Turian moved to the edge of the room, dialling someone on his omnitool.

Valeia rose and followed him, calling over her shoulder."Sel'ama, would you accompany me? I feel that some feminine charm may be more than useful for us."

She giggled and jumped up out of her seat, her hips swaying provocatively as she went… leaving me sitting down as my emotions continued to build. I had to wonder what was wrong with me, not more than a minute ago I'd been the calm and rational one, and now I felt like I was about to fly off the handle again.

I shook my head to clear the images of my earlier fight, my throat letting out something that might have been a wistful sigh entirely of its own accord.

"There's a training center not far from the dealer." Valeia said as she returned to us.

"I could do with some practice." I needed the experience more than anything, and I still had a lot to learn about my biotics. My alter perhaps equally so, although he seemed to have a better grasp on them than I did at the moment. So far then only times I'd managed to use my biotics properly was subconsciously.

Not only that but I thought it would be a welcome escape from the turmoil of hormones rushing through my system.

Victus nodded and told us to get on with it, and I quickly moved off to change clothes.

"You ready?" Valeia asked as I returned from my room, having done so, and also having pickedup a bottle of Tupari and some snack bars.

"Let's go."

* * *

 **Reviews:**

Tusken1602: My lips are sealed on who it was for the moment, but all shall be revealed! Also, yes, I absolutely intend for Greg to run into various others that The Matriarch has brought over - whether or not he realises will be a different matter altogether.

Thedarknesswithin96: I'm glad he's freaking you out a little bit! He's sort of like Greg's Id... just very angry.


	10. Ch 10: Drop Zone

**A/N: Another instalment of the story for your viewing pleasure. Please leave a review and let me know what you think.**

 **Huge thanks once again to the awesome Katkiller-V for helping make this chapter, and the rest of the story, what it is.**

* * *

 **Act I:Trouble in Paradise**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Drop Zone**

* * *

I stared down at the planet below, the landmasses of the planet almost forming a pangeanic expanse around the equator. The deep green of forest covered almost every area of land that I could see below the swirling cloud cover.

We hadn't really known if this planet was the right one when we first set out, despite our hunch. Which is why it was the third one we'd visited, our scans of the other two planets revealing nothing more interesting than orbital fueling stations.

This planet didn't even have that much, and there was nothing else around for light-years.

A thunderstorm rolled into life from the northern coast, lightning illuminating the clouds for a brief flash before the angry grey hues returned. There were no lights on the dark side of the planet that I could currently see, but once the scans of the planet came back we'd be able to tell where any installations might be.

I could only hope that we were finally here… it had been eighteen days, and God alone knew what the Matriarch could have done in that time.

I had spent every day that we'd been on the Citadel, pushing myself to the limit. We had been permitted to conduct training exercises at the C-Sec headquarters and by the end of it, we outclassed the regular C-sec squadrons by a fair margin. We were on par with most of the special response teams, although I have to say that while I was improving rapidly, I was still the 'worst' member of our team when it came to regular combat.

When I wasn't training, I was making myself stronger, faster able to go for longer. When I'd first been brought over into this universe I had been a sedentary asshole who sat on his ass all day - even if I didn't have a choice. Two months of drive, two months of torturing myself, ensuring that I would be able to weather the coming storm had changed me into a warrior.

Let me tell you, it _sucked_. It fucking sucked ass. But I had never been so ready for a fight before. Since being here I had never been this focused, this fuelled by anything as much as I was to rescue my friends.

The ship we had managed to borrow for our rescue mission was owned and crewed by an Asari exploration and prospecting company, which meant that if anyone did pass us, they wouldn't think twice about us heading to the edges of 'civilised' space. The ship itself reminded me almost of an Asari version of the freighter ships in the first game, though where there were blocky sections in my memory, in reality I could see sleek curves, the bulkheads connecting together in a sweeping arc.

The ship didn't have much in the way of living space, but it was far more than I expected. There were four crew quarters, although only one of those was occupied by actual crew at the moment, with two others being used for our own purposes, and the final one had been transformed into an armoury of sorts. There were also two 'wings' that contained observation decks and a lower level that held the drive core and mining array. A mess hall connected the quarters and the cockpit, with storage bays at the rear of the ship for material deposits that the crew would no doubt sell to the highest bidder.

It had been an awkward trip, trying to stay out of the way of the ship's crew for little over a week, but we had managed to do so, although I must admit it was more than a little frustrating to hear Sel'ama's moans of delight every time she seduced another member of the crew. I was pretty sure a few of the others had gotten involved at some point too, but thankfully they weren't loud enough to echo through the ship if they had. Unfortunately for me, since the entire crew was Asari I didn't get even the luxury of making the attempt.

In the absence of anything better to do, my alter had taken up making himself felt by violent shakes. They wore me down and made me lose the control I had on my body. For the most part the team were learning how to deal with me - him, while he was in control, but I could tell that it unnerved them still. Especially Tom, who'd been present the first time the convulsions tore through me. I think he thought I was going anaphylactic or under cardiac arrest, and had understandably panicked as a result.

The crew were a different story... They seemed to avoid me like the plague after I had erupted when the second planet had been another dead end, my alter not exactly winning me any friends with his stuttering ranting and raving. I couldn't blame them really, I was frustrated in more ways than one.

"What do you reckon we'll find here?" I asked, not bothering to turn around as the door to the observation room slid open.

"I have a feeling it will be more than the previous planets had." Valeia returned as she came to a stop next to me. She placed a hand on my shoulder, and I uncrossed my arms, relaxing slightly at her touch. "We will find them, Greg."

"I know, I'd just rather they be intact when we find them." And not indoctrinated husks if The Matriarch was actually working for the reapers.

"You should come and join us in the mess. I'm sure it would make the crew more fond of you if they could see that you aren't a raging tempest all the time." Her hand moved from my shoulder to my lower back, roaming around it in soothing motions.

"Just because it's not visible doesn't mean I'm not angry." As I stared at the planet below I could feel the shaking build, but I lifted my hand and stared at it, willing myself to steady. The relaxing touch of her hand helped somewhat, and for once I was able to fight him off without real trouble.

"You don't have to hide your feelings that the search hasn't gone as planned so far. The rest of us are feeling it too." She spoke softly, and it was a gentle reminder that I wasn't alone here.

"Sorry." I said absently. "I guess I was too caught up in trying to control myself to realise that. I know he's a part of me, of my mind, but it feels like there's another person inside of me. I don't want to have someone else control me."

"No one blames you for doing so, Greg." I knew she was trying to soothe me... and it was working. "None of us want to experience what it is you're going through, but you don't have to try and deal with it on your own. Remember that."

I nodded and tore my eye away from the planet to look at Valeia. She had a slight look of worry in her eyes, and I gave her the best reassuring smile I could.

"Thanks, Val. Let's go say hi." She smiled back and led me into the mess hall. Before we left the observation deck I turned to get one last look at the planet. They were here. I could feel it.

We were around the planet for little more than an hour before the ship's sensors found them. The compound was practically buried within an area of mountainous jungle, nestled in the valley of two peaks. Unfortunately for us, we had also detected some ground to orbit weapons, which meant that we'd need to touchdown a fair few kilometers away so as not to be blown to smithereens, much to my annoyance..

"Greg, we're moving in, get geared up." James' voice called out to us as he poked his head out from the makeshift armoury, where I slipped into my armour with practiced ease before I grabbed a BSA heavy pistol and attached it to its holster. I followed the heavy pistol with a Crusader variant shotgun and an Armax assault rifle; The shotgun was nestled into its holster on my upper back - I preferred it to the lower back and the assault rifle was nestled in my arms while the others filtered in and grabbed their own weapons.

We hadn't been able to get much in the way of upgrades for anything, considering how much gear we had been buying, but at the very least we had been able to get everyone's armour repaired and ensured that everyone was equipped with at least two weapons. I think we'd gotten some sort of deal for knowing the owner… and for buying in bulk.

The dealer, a Turian by the name of Pollux, had even managed to get us some Batarian State Arms weaponry - at least the models that were still legal in Citadel space. I had found myself rather fond of the heavy pistol I had picked out. It only managed seven or eight shots before overheating, but it packed a good deal more punch than the other pistols on offer had.

Next to me, Valeia strapped a pair of pistols to her hips and cradled an Asari made assault rifle that reminded me more of a dmr than an actual assault rifle. In contrast, Sel'ama only had one pistol to go with an assault rifle that was similar in design to the one Valeia held, if a lot shorter.

James and Ben were outfitted in a similar manner to myself, although James actually had two pistols, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, _and_ an assault rifle… along with a bandolier of varying grenade types. For his part, Tom was carrying a heavy pistol similar to my own, though I didn't know what model it was. He also had an assault rifle strapped to his back as he messed with his omnitool, most likely because he was trying to cram more medigel into the dispenser.

Jun was in one corner of the room, a Watcher smg clamped to his hip while the barrel of a large sniper rifle protruded from his back. He was less focused on his guns, and more focused on his omni-tool as he fiddled with his techmine launcher, no doubt sorting the telemetry system. Clank had foregone most of the weaponry available in the shop, but had been taken with a particularly large shotgun that looked like a relative to the Claymore. Berrilius was the last to enter my periphery, though that was because he was already geared up. I didn't think that he'd changed out of his armour since we left the Citadel.

Once we were all armed and armored, Jun piloted the ship's miniature shuttle down to the surface, bringing us into atmosphere several hundred miles away from the base in order to try and keep our approach as unnoticed as possible. The outpost would no doubt have its sensors trained on the ship in orbit, but with the cover of an exploration vessel they would hopefully assume that they were just out here on a job, and not ferrying some very angry commandos to their base.

The ride was cramped with all of us loaded for bear in the tiny shuttle, but thirty minutes later and we were on the ground.

A map appeared on my HUD as I placed my helmet over my features, the terrain having been scanned from orbit, and we already had a waypoint directing us towards the facility. Despite the cover over my head, the atmosphere felt heavy. The animals had fled at the appearance of our ship, leaving the dense forest strangely still.

The terrain we were moving through was strangely familiar, despite all of the flora being things that I hadn't seen before. I could see plants that looked an awful lot like ferns curl up as we approached, as though they sensed us and didn't want to be touched, and the trees wound themselves around each other in a strange dance as they stretched up towards the canopy. The ground was strewn with dead leaves, roots bursting from the surface of the ground, and every rock was covered in moss.

Sure I'd been on an alien planet already, but I hadn't seen anything like this. Nothing that felt so alien yet so familiar at the same time… I don't mind admitting that it was unsettling.

Our group moved quickly, but in relative silence. There was a fair distance still to cover - roughly ten kilometers or so since we had come in low enough that the radar systems shouldn't have been able to detect our approach, and our visual approach was concealed by the mountains. We _should_ have the element of surprise. The distance wasn't particularly troublesome, but the mounting suspense we felt as the compound grow closer through the difficult terrain wasn't helping.

For my part, I was itching to get a move on, to break out into a run to get to the facility faster, to rescue our friends. But I also knew that that would only serve to make the actual fighting harder once we did arrive. After all, who wants to assault a compound when they've just run a half marathon through a jungle?

My musings were cut short as we began our ascent over the small mountainside. We were using encrypted radio channels to confer with each other as we moved, ensuring our almost silent approach as we scrambled up the mountain. Here the forest was thinner, but it was almost imperceptibly so. At any rate it helped us climb the hillside with relative ease, though the lower gravity also helped If we were on a planet with a standard gravitational field I'm sure it wouldn't have been quite so easy, as it was the small planet had just over three quarters of Earth's pull which allowed us to move upwards with minimal effort.

All in all it took us into the early hours of the local evening before we laid eyes on the compound, though strangely there was a distinct lack of lights coming from the buildings.

Not to say it was pitch black like the forest around us soon would be, but down on the ground it was obvious they were trying to minimise their signature. From what I could tell, the installation was made up of several prefab buildings - the kind that you could literally just pick up and drop somewhere as a single unit - with a couple more solid structures that seemed to be a communications hub, and a nondescript building that, from our orbital scans, hid an entrance into the mountain proper.

James was our de facto leader, and our eyes were trained on him as we got into a loose circle to plan our attack.

"Jun, Berry, on overwatch."James whispered as he held out his sniper to Berrilius. The two nodded, moving on to scramble up the mountainside, keeping as low a profile as they could. That mostly just meant keeping low to the ground and staying on our side of the ridgeline for as long as possible. "Don't go too far up, we'll need you to move in sooner or later."

Two clicks were received in affirmation as they disappeared from view.

A map of the compound was brought up onto our HUDs as Valeia lowered her omnitool, its light fading from view. She kept her voice low when she spoke, "We don't think they've managed to spot us yet, but it's best to exercise caution here. We're not going in blind, thank the goddess, but we don't know their capabilities so we're going to be as quiet about this as we can. Focus on stealth, and no heroics."

We all nodded as she finished her small speech, then turned to James as he took over and went through plans B, C and D. Nothing like being prepared I supposed, though by the time he got to D I was getting impatient.

To be honest I was feeling slightly nauseous about the whole thing as we finally finished our prep. It wasn't as if I was going to be sick or anything… It felt more like pre-show jitters. There was a flutter in my stomach that wouldn't settle, and my body wouldn't stop trembling. I could feel my alter chomping at the bit, ready to burst out and begin killing everything under The Matriarch's control, but I was able force him back. It wouldn't do for me to go berserk and ruin our carefully crafted plans now. From the slight trembling in my arms he didn't agree with the sentiment, but I ground my teeth and kept him down as we all drew our weapons.

"We ready?" Sel'ama whispered into the cooling air. I could almost imagine the condensation of her breath forming as she spoke, but I turned my attention back to the compound with a nod.

"Let's go." I said, and those two words seemed to set everything off in a cascade.

It started slowly at first - we weren't going to charge in just because we could see the compound. Instead we made our way towards it as quietly as we could, moving in crouches to stay as low as we could.

That was where our overwatch became necessary.

The walls were tall - about sixteen feet high or so, which was a height that I would have been out of reach were it not for my biotics. Valeia, Sel'ama, and I launched ourselves up and gripped onto the top of the wall, waiting for the go ahead from Jun and Berrilius before hauling ourselves over. We kept as low to the top as we could so that anyone glancing in our direction wouldn't see our silhouettes as we dropped down the other side of the wall, landing in soft thuds inside the compound.

Inside the walls there was practically no cover whatsoever, although we managed to find shelter behind a number of crates that had been covered in camouflaged tarpaulin. For a moment I wondered what they contained - then I mentally slapped myself, firmly reminding myself that I had to stay on mission.

Our next piece of cover was a low wall that served as the edge of a sort of open-air hangar bay, but the sounds of two female voices growing in volume made us hesitate. A few seconds laters, Berrilius's voice came over the radio channel.

"Two targets, Asari, light armour, coming your way. No visible weapons." His words were clear and informative - the very essence of a military professional who was hard at work.

"Roger." I whispered back. Sel risked a peek at them around the crates before whipping back into cover, her helmet shaking once to indicate that we couldn't move around that corner.

"Go." Jun's voice commanded. Staying as low and quiet as we could we darted around the other side. We made it to the wall without anyone sounding an alarm, and began making our way to the other end. The quiet voice came over the radio once again as we reached the edge, keeping down as we waited. "Hold there. Marking targets now. No guns."

Two blips popped into view on our huds, then five, then twelve. "We can't see anyone else. Tom, James, Ben - head right with Clank, there's a gate of some sort that you should be able to break through."

"Acknowledged." Came James' short reply. My nerves were fraying with each passing moment we were here and undetected, and I felt a shiver run down my spine. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep my alter at bay as the prospect of violence loomed, and I'm still not sure how I managed it.

"Keep it together…" I murmured to myself, clenching my left fist to stop the shakes that were loosening my grip on reality. The falling darkness served to help us somewhat, but I was still wary of being detected.

"We'll take the two on the left, there's one more approaching on the right. Greg, that's you." Valeia commanded. I nodded to my Asari friends as they moved back down the wall, closer to where The Matriarch's patrol had stopped, while I focused on my own quarry, the steadily approaching marker an indication where she was. Using that I poked my head out of cover and around one of the shuttles that were parked in the makeshift bay. She was smoking something, and I let her almost pass before I slid over the wall and in between two of the shuttles.

I crept up behind her, my muscles coiling for the strike - and in a split second she was struggling to breath, the faint scent of vanilla reaching its way through my helmet's filters as my arms locked around her neck. Before her flailing managed anything, I brought her back down onto my knee, simultaneously driving the air out of her and preventing her from drawing breath or screaming for help.

It wasn't long before her body went limp in my arms, and I quickly dragged her back behind the shuttles before dumping her body on the other side of the wall. I wasn't sure if she'd been faking her unconsciousness or not, but the moment I dropped her she hacked out a startled gasp, her eyes wide as she tried to surge back to her feet.

My immediate reaction was a pure and simple 'oh fuck!' before I grabbed her by the crest and slammed her head into the wall. Several times. My heart was beating out of my chest, but I thought I had managed to salvage the stealth part of our insertion.

Which is why the alarms going off not a second later was an unpleasant surprise

Lights that I didn't know existed burst into life, illuminating the area as the wail of a siren screamed through the air, almost muting the loud _crack!_ of sniper fire that hailed down from the mountainside. A quick glance at Valeia and Sel'ama showed me that they had simply killed their targets outright, blood pooling around where their foes lay dead.

I looked back at my own kill and fought the urge to wretch. Blood coated the low wall and I could see where the Asari's skull had caved in, the blood already starting to congeal as bits of dirt and moss found their way into the open wound.

I should have really bought a combat knife… it would have been a lot cleaner.

Gunfire reminded me that there wasn't any time for hindsight at that moment. The remaining nine targets were being taken down by our sniper team, but we already knew that it wouldn't be moments before Asari came flooding out into the courtyard. We had to move before we were swarmed and overwhelmed.

"Go, go, go!" I yelled, building my way up from a stagger to a sprint as I tore past the two Asari. I brought my shotgun up to a ready position as I charged for the door of the nearest building, all but tackling an Asari who made the mistake of opening the door as I arrived. We both fell to the floor in a heap, though I managed to bring my shotgun around towards the small squadron that had jumped back in shock.

One down.

Two.

If I'd had the time to really take in the scene before me, and had that been a month ago, I'm sure I would have emptied the contents of my stomach onto the inside of my helmet. Thankfully for my continued survival, I wasn't concentrating on the dead, my resolve strong enough to not be distracted by the gore.

The Asari began reacting properly after my second kill, barriers overlapping each other as they retreated back down the corridor, their own weapons bursting to life. I had been shoved off the Asari I'd crashed into, though I'd managed to keep her close to me as we got up, dissuading most of the return fire from actually hitting me.

Valeia and Sel'ama announced their arrival with a biotic explosion that shattered the barriers of two Asari and staggered two others. One of the Asari whose barriers had collapsed was promptly riddled with holes as my friends opened fire, though the other managed to slip into cover before she could be taken down.

A gleaming technical mine soared through the air and I shoved my Asari shield in the way of it. The two collided as the projectile burst and flames spewed out as though an angry dragon had spat in our direction. The unfortunate Asari screamed before my shotgun rang out to end it abruptly.

At this point I opted to simply run back out of the doorway and take cover. Valeia shut the door by blasting a control panel that sparked as the automatic door slammed shut, sealing the entrance.

"What in Athame's name are you doing?" Valeia shouted, hauling me around as we moved back across the compound to the shuttles. The others were approaching us as I planted my feet and squared my shoulders.

"I was going with plan C ok?" I shot back vindictively. "We can't stay out here in the open, not when -"

The whump of an explosion interrupted my retort, the door that we'd sealed shut blowing open. All of us turned as one and began firing into the corridor.

My own firing came a little after the others as I replaced my shotgun for the assault rifle I had brought with me. The smoke cleared from the corridor to reveal the dead Asari we had killed moments ago, another squad coming out of cover from around the corner and flash-stepping their way behind a nearby building and a few of the crates scattered around the compound.

"Watch your heat!" James bellowed as his rifle began to vent from overuse, although he didn't slow down as he all but dropped the weapon, switching to his pistol and began using that to rain hell on the opposing Asari. He lobbed one of his grenades towards their line and although they ducked back into cover, the arc of the grenade took it behind them before it detonated with the distinct cracking sound of a biotic nullifier.

The fighting was intense, beyond anything else I'd been involved in - as soon as a shield or a barrier would get close to breaking, both sides would slip back into cover. Clank drew most of the fire his way, a target as big as the Krogan was too difficult to pass up. Thankfully he was surprisingly nimble - going so far as to sidestep a biotic attack at the last second that ended up hitting Ben, causing him to rise almost completely out of cover before he was yanked back down by Sel'ama.

Most of the casualties weren't produced by the fighting in the compound, rather they came from the thunderous roar of sniper fire that echoed around the mountain, the Asari unable to effectively counter the combination of long and short ranged firepower.

I had risen from my cover as my shields recharged, only to fall back to a knee as another tremor shook through me, fear welling up as it simply continued far beyond anything else I'd felt.

"Greg!" Tom called out as he rushed over to me, his helmet appearing in my view as I looked up at the night sky from my place on the ground. It was probably a bad sign that I didn't even remember falling over entirely.

"... M… Fine!..." I managed to grunt out. "Need to… get inside..." The convulsions were doing nothing to keep my energy levels up, although I was sure that it was simply a matter of mental fatigue rather than a physical one.

"Jun! Berrilius! We're going with C." James cried out. "Greg's right, the original is shot to bits now. We need to get inside, now!"

Give in, let me out. They took your friends. They deserve your rage, your hate. Your wrath. They deserve to die.

I tried to grind my teeth, to refuse, to push him back… but the thoughts had ignited my own anger, my fierce desire to save everyone, and I felt myself letting go before I could try and stop it.

In the luls of the shooting, a maniacal cackle could be heard, and then my body was up and moving, all but shoving Tom and James out of the way as I went. We needed to get inside the building, that was where the most enemies would be, where I could kill the most. A bestial snarl left my lips as I bounded over the shuttle, then disappeared in a biotic charge towards a small group of three Asari who were still recovering from the effects of another dampening grenade.

The shockwave of my biotic charge literally flattened the unprepared Asari I slammed into, and my Batarian made pistol executed another in short order. The third was quicker, ducking away from and me and snapping her rifle up, but before she could pull the trigger a sniper round burst through her head in a mess of blood and bone that exploded all around her. Thankfully I wasn't covered too badly, but I was still sprayed liberally by the gore.

My alter cackled again in glee even as I cringed inside.

There were barely half the number of Asari that had come out of the corridor at this point, the combination of snipers and nullification pulses proving deadly in the relatively open space. Several had already flashed away, heading for the communications building, with others shifting around to cover their retreat. I turned to see two of the remaining defenders hunkering down behind their cover, staying in place even as it was being whittled away.

We locked eyes, and a snarl erupted from her face as she lifted her weapon and fired.

There was a brief moment where panic overtook me and for the barest of moments I no longer existed. I had been in motion, my alter trying to get out of her line of sight, but f when I blinked ripples of biotic energy were flowing away from me and I was standing on the crate in front of and above the Asari.

The snarl had disappeared from her face, and a look of confusion had replaced it. My alter was at least as confused as she and I both were, to the point where his control over my body disappeared.

I had to shake myself into motion as the two Asari recovered, shifting rapidly to aim their weapons at me. Thankfully my own pistol was still in my hand and already pointing in more or less the right direction. I fired my pistol twice in quick succession and one of the Asari lay dead, missing most of her head. Her companion flinched at the spray of blood, her shots going wide of me, and I used that to my advantage, kicking her weapon out of her hands before executing her with a headshot before she could activate her barrier.

And then I all but collapsed as exhaustion ran over me, my everything aching as the shock of what happened caught up to me, adrenaline fleeing my body far too quickly. Thankfully my friends noticed my plight quickly enough, sprinting over to join me while our overwatch kept the few remaining defenders pinned down.

"What… What the hell was that?" I groaned, weakly waving an arm at where I had been before somehow teleporting to where I stood. It hadn't been all that far, not more than ten meters… I'd done biotic charges much farther than that and hadn't felt anything like this.

"Here, eat this." Valeia spoke as she reached me, her fingers reaching into my armour and pulling out an energy bar. She all but shoved it into my hands before pulling drugs out from her own pocket, sliding it into the port in my armour so that she could she shoot stimulants into my system. The crash was likely to be worse for it, but at least I was able to stand again.

"Thanks." I mumbled over the bar as I lifted my helmet enough to stuff the food into my mouth before sealing it again. She nodded in reply, pushing me towards the building whose door was blown open as the others also headed in that direction.

"Did you just teleport?" James asked as he wordlessly signalled for Tom, Ben and Sel'ama to move down the corridor. "That wasn't a normal biotic move, not like I've ever seen anyway."

"I… I think I just did. I'm not sure I want to do it again though... I need to rest a moment." I swallowed the rest of the bar, holstering my pistol once again and properly shouldering my rifle. The stimulants were fast acting, but I still felt terrible, and it was all I could do to shuffle through the blasted doorway.

"You can teleport?" I heard Berrilius' baffled voice come over the comms.

"It's not really teleporting." Valeia replied for me. "It's quantum tunneling. Although I don't think I've ever seen a human capable of doing it. Normally something like that is reserved for the more powerful Matriarchs and even then it uses too much energy to do it frequently… flash steps are more efficient and cover more ground, so it's considered something of a show-off maneuver."

"Using dark energy to alter probability?" Jun's rapid-fire sentence managed to snap me out of the daze that I'd found myself in. "Fascinating, but we can talk science later, mission first."

"Agreed." James ushered everyone else into the building, his eyes searching the compound's courtyard for any sign of enemy movement before he backed inside with us.

* * *

 **Reviews:**

 **Thedarknesswithin96:** I probably should have explained that, but essentially it is one of three parts of the human psyche, according to Sigmund Freud, if you're interested in psychology, or just want to learn a little bit more about his theories, there's lots of information on the interwebs that'll be much more accurate than me.

 **Rfpizzle:** While the same division will happen, Aethyta won't necessarily _inherit_ Greg from the broker, but she will definitely become aware of him. For now, that's all the hints you're getting!


	11. Ch 11: Sphere of Influence

**A/N:** Hey everyone! Huge thanks to Katkiller-V for beta-ing my story and letting me use his version of the mass effect-verse.

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 **Act I: Trouble in Paradise**

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 **Chapter 11: Sphere of Influence**

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We made our way through the building slowly, the stimulants that were pumping their way around my body were the only things keeping me moving forward, and the underlying fatigue was still enough to make me feel slightly sluggish.

The interior of the complex was plain, grey-white walls were the prevailing theme that we saw as we slowly moved through the corridors. Said hallways were somewhat large and open, but twisted and turned in the same way that trenches were built so as to prevent someone from simply firing down the length of the building and killing everyone in one go.

In other words, wide enough to move cargo, while still being defensible.

There were doors placed sporadically that were locked, with no visible control panels or power sources… meaning there was no way into those rooms and no way to check what was inside. A part of me hoped that we weren't walking past where our friends were being kept, while another simply hoped that we weren't too late to save them.

The whole building seemed entirely too empty now after that first squad that we'd fought, but I put it down to nerves and paranoia.

We moved with barely practised precision, our weapons trained on all angles as we moved in formation down the corridor. Clank stomped ahead of us with James close behind, Ben and Sel'ama flanking him while Valeia and I held the rear echelon.

The lack of resistance we found as we moved increasingly set us on edge, my paranoia overcoming what little optimism I'd mustered. That couldn't have been all the security for one of The Matriarch's bases? Even if they were keeping this place low profile, two squads wouldn't be all of the defenses that were put in place.

"Where is everyone?" I whispered into the comm channel as my mounting edginess saw me searching every crevice for signs of another squad.

"This place is too empty." Clank rumbled in agreement, his heavy footfalls echoing in the corridor.

"One squad entering the building behind you. We'll slow them down for you." Berrilius growled into the comms before anyone else could chime in, and I could picture the crosshairs of his sniper rifle lining up on a target as he spoke.

"Go ahead, just don't give away your position." James' commanded. "Ben, set some traps for our friends, just don't block our exit."

"Understood." We picked up the pace at that, covering Ben as he got to work setting up proximity mines on the corners as we took them. They weren't particularly well hidden, but if you weren't looking for them they'd be easy to miss. Which basically meant that we might kill one of the squad chasing us, and slow the rest down as they made to avoid any further mines but that would be the extent of it.

"Clank, let's move. Down here." James pointed out a stairwell sat at the end of the corridor that had been burrowed out of the mountainside.

Clank and James disappeared out of sight for a few moments before the latter returned and began waving the rest of us down. Ben finished placing the last of his mines and was just turning around when a low _whoompf_ reached our ears.

"They've hit the first mine already. We've got to go." Our pace quickened before Ben had even finished speaking, taking the steps down two or three at a time. A second and third detonation could be heard almost simultaneously.

Had the locked rooms contained more of The Matriarch's people? Or had they figured out a way to set them off in sequence?

We all paused, our covered eyes looking at each other in unspoken uncertainty. Our pause lasted barely a second as we heard a groaning wail that came from above us, the sound knocking us back into motion as we ran in a flurry of movement.

Out front, Clank charged towards the end of the tunnel that we'd entered, and it wasn't too long before he reached the end - a solid vault door that lead further into the mountain.

Was this where our friends were being kept?

"Get that door open!" James cried out as he caught up to the speeding Krogan. Valeia performed what I could only assume was a flash-step to catch up, which left me at the rear of the group as the sound of two more explosions reached our ears over a new, growing rumble that must have been the trampling of feet.

"Go, go!" I pushed Sel'ama and Ben who had stopped and turned as the trample became audible. The three of us caught up to the others as they got the door open - barely, but it was enough for us to get through.

I felt a tremor shoot its way through my body as my alter reared his head once again. There would be bloodshed soon enough and he knew it… and was eager for it.

The other side of the door was dark - so dark that it was almost pitch black when compared to the dim lighting of the corridor we were inhabiting. That changed the moment we stepped through, flood lights springing to life in the corners of what we could now see was an enormous cavern. It looked like a dead-end and it was mostly barren. At least I thought it was until one final light switched on to reveal a pedestal with something spherical placed atop near the back.

We packed into the room as the final detonation was heard and Clank heaved the door shut again. That done, we quickly moved away from the door as we heard the sound of the mob approaching and into the cavern proper.

People had been kept here, that much was obvious if the smell of refuse was anything to go by. There were other clues too, though. Uneaten food was scattered around the cavern and fragments of discarded clothing lay haphazardly on the cavern rocks.

Our examination of the cavern was interrupted as a grim laugh came over a loudspeaker system.

"It was a bad idea to go in there, you know." A smug Asari voice echoed through the cavern. "But I suppose we didn't leave you with much choice. That said, if you had arrived a few days earlier you might have had someone to save. Unfortunately for you, that is no longer the case. And you'll be the perfect additions to my Mistress' army."

We all turned to face the cavern door… and then shared nervous glances amongst each other when nothing happened. The confusion lasted until the sound of something shifting came from behind us. I turned to see the pedestal rising further out of the ground, the object perching atop revealing itself to be an orb of some sort, covered by a loose cloth that slid off with the upwards movement.

The perfect orb had a swirling black light emanating from inside of it, a strange… graceful... iridescent blue glow wisping through the darkness. It took me a moment to recognise what it was, and raw terror welled up somewhere in the back of my mind

"Destroy that thing!" I wanted to yell out, intent on aiming my rifle as I spoke, but no words left my mouth and no motion swept through my arms. The swirling colors became more pronounced… and I knew that they held a respite from everything that had happened recently. I didn't want to destroy that… I _couldn't._ I wanted to go into it, to be a part of the harmony that I could see inside it.

I felt… so tired, and simply staring at the majesty of the orb felt like the most important task in the world to me.

I wondered if the friends that I'd come here to rescue were being protected by it too. That wouldn't be so bad. We could be together again, all of us...

"What's happening?" I heard somebody say, although their voice was distant, as if I was hearing them through a layer of water. Someone else, Valeia maybe, put a hand on my shoulder and tried to shake me, but there was no strength to it.

A new voice seemed to cut through the cavern and it stole my focus, everything else became muted and fuzzy. The orb was the only thing that was clear.

" _The Eldritch has returned."_ It greeted me in a myriad of voices that reverberated around my skull, amplifying the effect as deep baritone roars mingled with rasping whispers in a way that defied all logic. " _Interesting… You are the third of our prophet's chosen with the ability to control dark matter."_

I had returned? What did that mean?

"What happened to the other two?" I asked the orb… or tried to ask. The words never left my lips, but I swore that I could feel the voice's owner become amused. Like seeing someone smirk when they heard a stupid question

And… it was stupid to ask, wasn't it? I could feel the majesty of the presence behind the orb. It was something unbelievable and it promised everything. Perhaps it would return me to my old life. Perhaps it would let me escape my nightmare. Perhaps, I wouldn't be alone again.

Was I alone? I had my team now, I wasn't alone surely. Why couldn't they be with me? Why was I alone _now_?

I wasn't… I wasn't supposed to be alone. I was supposed to… supposed to be with...

A crack appeared in the orb where what looked like a bullet had struck its side. The crack held for a second before it split further around the orb, another round cracking open the orb as it shattered with an explosive scream that bounced around inside my skull. My shields shattered at the orb's detonation, and shards of thick glass embedded themselves into my plating, some of them pushing their way through to cut into my flesh.

The sudden pain tore me fully from the trance that I'd fallen into as that furious scream continued to assault my mind.

Streets I didn't recognise stretched out forever, as though I were being held in place while everything else tried to move onward. A mere heartbeat passed until I stood next to a woman - her raven hair was cropped short in a way that complimented her features, and her pale skin seemed almost luminous as purple eyes shone dangerously.

Ships fell from the sky as angry meteors of fire and smoke, crashing into the ground as they went.

People trying to flee in terror as shuttles descended and cages were filled.

Metal screeching as I pushed against warping bars.

Following Asari clad in black armour as they led me through the war-torn corridors of a ship, bodies strewn carelessly about.

Combat flashed before my eyes,an explosion detonated in front of me, and then an ocean of pain roared through my body.

Lying down on a cold table, unheard reassurances that everything was going to be alright as another dark orb was lowered from the ceiling.

I was returned unceremoniously into the cavern as the last image vanished, my balance failing as the scream subsided, and the air rushed out of me as I fell to the side. There was something warm oozing down my face and neck, and the fatigue that I had felt after the fight outside had returned full force.

Gunfire cracked and echoed around the cavern. I wanted to get up and move, but I was too exhausted… Hell, I couldn't even feel my alter trying to take control. I'm sure it would be alright if I just closed my eyes for a bit…

My world spun as I felt a needle puncture my neck, the cold rush of something being administered into my system being followed by a yanking pain as the shards were ripped out of my chest. I snapped my eyes open in time to see small spurts of blood accompanying them before the cool touch of medigel was applied. The calm that the orb had projected was a lie and now _something_ was trying desperately to flood into the cavern through the opening vault door.

"Greg you've got to get up! Come on now." I heard a voice, but I wasn't lucid enough to distinguish who's it was…. Not that it mattered, they had a point. I stumbled up to my feet, steadying myself against the wall of the cavern and breathing too heavily from the effort.

"Are you alright?" Concern coated the voice as the words reached my ears. My throat felt like it had been closed and was dryer than the sahara desert so all I could manage was a croak followed by a nod.

The stims began working properly after twenty or thirty seconds, and I supported my own weight once again as Valeia handed me the rifle that I had dropped at some point. Probably during the trance that I'd been put into.

"Let's get ready." I managed to get out of my mouth, the dryness vanishing as the wet taste of iron reached my tongue.

The wails that we'd heard approaching were more audible now as the door eased slowly open. They were coming from something that looked awfully like a whole lot of Turians, Humans and the occasional Asari. Something that looked like my friends.

Anger raged through me as I recognised one of the faces trying to get through the doorway. Lily's features were barely recognisable now, and her face was contorted in a scream that tore through air to be joined by two others.

Lily's biotics hadn't been particularly strong, not by Asari standards anyway. I'd probably had more raw power than her even, but whatever had been done to her had changed that. Her biotics now billowed around her in a localised storm that seemed to latch onto anything around her and began to eat away at it - even those in front of her.

The Matriarch was making banshees?

She wasn't a true banshee though, not like from the games at least - although the base form was still there; the claws, the distention of the belly and the terrible scream. There was something different though. A smaller version of the orb that had been on the pedestal - a pebble in comparison - was entrenched in her chest cavity, though thankfully it didn't seem to be calling to me like the larger one

James and Ben had already begun to unload at the opening gap in the doorway, and as Lily began to step through a nullification grenade arced towards her.

"That was the last one!" James roared over the din as his rifle tore into Lily, accompanied by others. Lily's barrier had failed against the nullification grenade, but came back less than a second later. Several shots had punctured her body, but none had brought her down.

Clank, Valeia, and Sel'ama quickly joined the desperate defense… but I was frozen in place, my rifle was raised but… I was unable to pull the trigger as I realised that they had all been husked. They weren't simply indoctrinated - we'd come too late to save them from that fate. Now they were all gone, they suffered far worse than simply dying at the compound.

And now we were either going to kill them or be killed by them.

Lily screamed as her weaker barrier was brought down and more rounds plugged holes into her body, one of her arms wrenching out of place as one of Clank's shotgun blasts tore half the limb away in a display of gore and violence.

My alter made itself known then, a giddy shiver making its way through me as the pseudo banshee turned to face Clank. I knew I was about to go under again - even with two doses of stims I didn't have the capacity to hold out after all that had happened, so I took stock of the situation as he seized control.

Valeia and Sel'ama were working in concert to keep the horde at bay, using their biotics to create violent detonations that threw bodies in all directions. They were the only reason we hadn't already been buried in bodies, we had until their strength ran out to even the odds.

James, Ben and Clank were all focusing their fire on the corpse of Lily - because that it was now, it was no longer her.

"James, Ben, focus help with the entrance. Clank! Let's take this thing _down._ " I roared over the comms before another tremor shook through me... then a cackle erupted from my lips as I took a mental backseat.

Thankfully, James and Ben listened to me as my alter took over, and immediately launched my body into a biotic charge that smacked into the banshee with enough force to crunch it against the cavern wall, rocks spewing in all directions as she collided with the stone wall.

I was pretty sure that would have killed Lily by itself, but it just pissed her corpse off.

Bones crunched as they twisted around from their contorted positions into something more normal as Clank's shotgun roared from beside me, his hulking from continuing on as he charged the undead Asari. He reared a leg back, clearly about to curbstomp her to oblivion, then Lily's good arm came up in a literal flash, preventing the gargantuan foot from pulping her as the Asari's barriers recharged.

My alter began to draw my own shotgun as Lily impossibly threw Clank off of her, then snapped her attention to me as we locked eyes. She screamed in rage as my own biotic storm began to swirl around my body. He prepared to fire my shotgun, the close range blast should at least do _something_ to her barriers when she disappeared and I heard more than felt the rush of wind as something moving very fast stopped very quickly behind me.

My body span and dropped to one knee as one of her claws went through the space where my head had been. The movement wasn't quite quick enough, although instead of having my head swiped off my shoulders I was knocked to the floor as the trigger was pulled, the blast of my shotgun being absorbed by her barriers but knocking her back as Clank's shotgun roared once more and the protective blue aura surrounding her subsided once again.

Spinning into a handstand, my body leapt back onto its feet and opted to sprint towards the recovering Asari, leaping into the air with a biotically assisted jump before switching the mass to greatly increase the force behind the drop-kick that connected with the side of her head, knocking the banshee to the floor with its head bent at an odd angle.

Once again the sound of cracking bones was heard in my immediate vicinity as the desecrated corpse of my friend rose once again, most of the jaw missing, as well as large chunks of skin that had been torn away by the cavern rocks revealing the muscle below.

"Why. Won't. You. D-Die!" My alter yelled in a guttural curse that echoed around the room as my body got to its feet and began to pummel the Asari. Its claws were as sharp as knives and he had to duck under a sudden swipe from the Asari, the dodge giving her the opening to give me a sharp kick that sent me tumbling backwards, all the air rushing out of my body.

My alter's rage was somehow still building, the pain and injuries causing a red haze to color around my vision. I knew that this couldn't have been a part of my mind. I was never this filled with _hate._

It simply wasn't me.

But I wasn't in control of my body right now, and as such, it wasn't _me_ who threw what had once been Lily to the ground. It wasn't _me_ who grabbed her by the crest and biotically slammed her head into the ground. Once, twice, then again... and again, and again. I couldn't stop my body from killing my friend - what was left of her, anyway.

Clank's hand on my shoulder stopped my alter in his tracks, just as he was about to slam what was left of her head onto the floor once more.

I couldn't help but take in the scene. The pseudo banshee was dead.

Lily, was dead.

Bone fragments were covered in grey matter and gore in an ever expanding puddle with her head at the epicenter. It's quite possible I would have thrown up then and there if I wasn't so tired, as it was I was just… exhausted. Not physically - my body had gotten up and began to help out with the stemming flow of our indoctrinated friends. Rather, I was mentally exhausted, and I was too disgusted with myself to really take in the gratuitous violence that my alter was thoroughly enjoying.

The cavern had become chaos.

Unable to keep the horde at bay, Valeia and Sel'ama were back-to-back as they fought tooth and nail to keep the indoctrinated at bay with their pistols, biotics, hands, feet, and occasionally even their heads. Clank had already turned to help them, his shotgun booming as it tore through two targets at a time, their unprotected flesh offering little resistance to the blast.

I tried to find James, Tom and Ben. Something must have scattered them since they weren't where I saw them last. I spotted James as he darted around the cavern, shooting, slicing and beating his way through the enemy - our friends. And then I saw Ben.

Another broken pseudo banshee held him in its claws. I didn't recognise this one, and I knew it wasn't quite as fully formed as Lily had been, but it would still be deadly enough.

A roar left my mouth that caught the attention of the banshee and as my body performed a biotic charge we locked eyes. Her - _Its_ eyes were pitch black, and as I came out of the charge I found its arm already outstretched and waiting to pick me up.

There was nothing my alter could do to avoid charging into its grip, my shotgun flying aside as momentum tore it from my hand. Its grip tightened around my throat and I could feel the mesh undersuit digging into my skin, just barely stopping its claws from tearing into my flesh.

That didn't particularly matter though, spots started to cloud my vision. I was struggling to get loose, to get air into my lungs. Just before I passed out, my body lit up like a bright blue flare, and I could feel the heat radiating from the warp field immolating the immediate area around me, the banshee's muscles melting from the destructive energy.

My armour was charred and molten in places, the paint bubbling up to reveal the plating below that was now scorched black and my body was going through a hacking cough as I suddenly had airflow once again.

That seemed to annoy my alter, I could practically feel his desire to howl right back at the Banshee in fury for having dared hurt him.

The banshee's scream in my ear alerted me that it had recovered, its good arm coming around in a wild swipe that required me to leap backwards and out of the way, my armour caught the claws, and their supranatural sharpness cleaved through the plates to reach my chest.

My alter had been too slow, too predictable, and paid the price for it.

Medigel automatically dispensed around the wound, but the pain was still enough to elicit a gargled scream from my throat.

Biotic light surrounded me once again as both my arms were brought crashing into the Asari that shunted her slightly off balance. An elbow followed, striking under the chin as my alter struck a third time with the other elbow that brought the banshee to the ground with a thud. I quickly collected my shotgun and fired non-stop into its chest cavity until the shotgun's VI began to vent heat.

Two banshees were dead.

The fight was winding down now. There were clear signs of biotic exhaustion from the two Asari, Sel'ama had even collapsed and was being looked at by Tom while Valeia and Clank held the attention of the remaining indoctrinated. They'd secured themselves in one partial-corner of the room, while James was… fighting his way towards me.

"Jesus Greg… What happ- Ben!" I turned to see where the Asari had thrown Ben and there was a quickly growing pool of blood surrounding him.

"Tom! Tom!" James' fearful cries spurred me into action as I made my way towards the small group, grabbing my shotgun from the ground and storing on my back. My alter elected to go with my heavy pistol after that, the Batarian made weapon ripping through targets with each shot.

"T-T-Tom. Help Ben. Hurt." My alter said as I grabbed him by wrist and pulled him away from Sel'ama and towards Ben and James, dropping his wrist to launch a heavy throw at an indoctrinated Turian that I doubt I would have been able to properly recognise before all this.

It was a couple of moments before Tom managed to reach Ben, escorted by me, and it really didn't look good.

His helmet had been removed and blood trickled out of his mouth before he erupted in a coughing fit that sprayed yet more blood over his chin and Tom. The final roar of a shotgun erupted from the other side of the cavern, and then the only noise that could be heard was Ben's hollow breath.

My body was breathing angrily, and with nothing left to kill my alter seemed to shrink away, forcing me to take control... causing me to all but collapse to the ground as the unnatural stamina he seemed to have left with him

Valeia hurried to my side and helped me back on my feet, letting me really take in the aftermath of the fighting. Blood and bodies littered the floor leading up to the doorway, where a pile of the indoctrinated spilled from one side of the frame where they had scrambled over one another to get into the room.

We'd been lucky, in a way. It looked like the banshee's had killed a good score of their own, and something had jammed the doorway half shut, letting us hold the small chokepoint. Even better, none of them had been armed or really armored… but those little breaks didn't make me feel any better.

I could still see the twisted reflections of who these people had been on their faces. They had all come from the compound. They were my friends. One body in particular held my attention longer than the others.

Two horns had been stretched and twisted unnaturally forwards on the Salarian's head, his jaw elongated like a snake's. He would have been just another casualty in the fighting. A product of our failure to save our friends. Jistok's dead eyes seemed to stare at me, and I found I couldn't look away. I had failed him. I wasn't quick enough to save the first friend I had made in this universe. His unblinking eyes asked me one simple question.

 _Why?_

Why hadn't I been able to save them. To save anyone? There was nothing else left of the compound now, just us.

"Come on Ben, stay with me!" Tom practically yelled. The note of distress managed to break me away from Ratchet's unwavering gaze, and I noticed Clank had been looking intently at the same corpse, while Valeia was eyeing me with concern.

Ben was a wreck. Empty medigel packs and gauze were strewn about him as Tom desperately tried to stabilise him, but it didn't seem like it was working. We had surrounded him now, unable to truly help despite our want to.

"Tell… tell my brother what happened…" Ben's voice was weak and as he spoke he was interrupted by bouts of coughing as blood left his body. "You've got to… Got to punish her… for what she's done… Kill The Matriarch…"

There was a certain sort of grace in the way that Ben died. The last of his life left his body in a trickle of blood that slipped from his mouth. His skin had become grey and pallid, his eyes dull and glazed over. Blood coated his armour and pooled around him, the dark red liquid coagulating with the medigel and soaked gauze to create a grim sight.

"You put up quite a fight in there." The Asari voice from before broke through the sombre air that had settled around us, enforcing a new mood upon the air. "I'm afraid I can't let you leave however. You've meddled with my mistress' plans enough."

With those words the door to the cavern began to close, the heavy door screeching slightly as it moved in fits and jerks. We broke from our places on reflex, Clank picked up Ben as he gained speed, Sel'ama panting as she made it to the door clutching her head. No doubt she was experiencing a migraine brought on from biotic overuse, and my own skull gave a throb to remind me I wasn't in much better shape

The pile of bodies worked in our favour as they slowed the door down long enough for us to get out of the cavern, the heavy slam dulled by the squish of flesh and the crunching of bones.

"We need to leave, come on, let's get out of here." Tom breathed. The mission had taken its toll on him - on everyone, but Ben had just died under his care and despite being in full armour he was easy to read.

I opened my mouth to agree, then felt a surge of anger as my alter came from nowhere to seize control. He did it so quickly I didn't even have the chance to resist, assuming my battered body even could have.

"N-n-no!" My alter raged. He had started to pace my body back and forth as everyone collected their wits. "Need to d-destroy this place. Orb-orbital cannon will k-k-kill us."

As much as I didn't want to stay here any longer, he did have a point. If the ship that had brought us here wasn't already destroyed, it wouldn't be much longer before it would be targeted by the weapon.

"He's right." James agreed. "As much as I want to leave, we need to disable that weapon before we can leave."

"...vac...st...me now…...e...gone..." Static burst over the comms and dread filled us. Jun and Berrilius should have been hidden well enough to avoid being targeted as they took out anyone trying to get into the building.

"Let's move." James issued and we resurfaced into the building, surging our way towards the exit.

We slowed as we realised that the locked rooms that we hadn't been able to open were all open now, the doors wide open. Each room would have held four or five people in pens, completely isolated from the others.

The Matriarch had treated our friends like animals. She had mutated them into something grotesque and she had forced us to kill them. I would lay their deaths at her feet because this - _all_ of this, was _her_ fault.

"Jun! Berrilius! Can you hear us?" Valeia called over the comm when we could see the building's entrance again.

"I'm here." Berrilius' coughing came over the radio. "Jun's unconscious. He's lost a lot of blood but he's stable. We cleared a small squad of vanguards but they hit us hard. I don't know how many more of them there are."

"That's alright B. Tom, take Sel'ama and get back to the shuttle and get it prepped for a pickup. Clank, get to Berrilius and get him and Jun back as well." James' commanding voice offering no chance to argue.

"What are you doing?" Sel'ama asked.

"Valeia, Greg and I will take the comms building and tear this place down." James' voice was confident, and I felt a wave of excitement rush through my own body, but I wasn't anticipating the upcoming fight. Sure, a large portion of the people stationed here were hopefully dead, but that still didn't mean I wanted to continue fighting after what we'd just been through.

I hurt, everywhere, and not just physically. My armor was shredded, particularly over my chest, and medigel and stims were the only things keeping me even mostly upright. I didn't want to continue fighting. I didn't know if I _could._

The sight of Ben's limp corpse convinced me otherwise.

* * *

 **A/N:** So, here we are guys, this chapter marks the end of the first act of the story and things have not gone well for our protagonist. Here's hoping that his situation will improve some before he goes into psychosis!

I made some minor edits to previous chapters with corrections pointed out by Menschenblut, so f you do see any discrepancies, let me know. That said, if you enjoyed the story so far, please leave a quick review - it doesn't take 2 minutes and it really encourages me to find the time to keep writing in an increasingly hectic schedule.

Stay tuned for more!


	12. Ch 12: Intermission I: Grief-stricken

**A/N:** Hi everyone, sorry for not updating in a while, but my life has become rather hectic recently as I'm juggling two jobs and uni work. I'll try to keep on top of things as we go on, but updates might come a little slower for the foreseeable future.

* * *

 **Intermission I: Grief-stricken**

* * *

 _Kamil_

 _02/09/17_

* * *

"This has got to stop" I heard the whispering from the other side of the door that I was sitting against, practically barricading myself away from the others.

I wasn't as pitiful as I probably seemed at the moment though, Valeia was in the room with me. Her presence seemed to help me keep in control of my alter, which, for the past few days had been almost impossible to do.

We - my alter and I - had taken very different methods of coping with the loss we'd suffered.

Clearing the rest of the base proved comparatively easy. There had been only a squad and a half worth of Asari left alive, and most of those weren't properly trained soldiers, appearing more like logistical and scientific staff than combatants. We still killed them all regardless of the uniform. They deserved slower deaths than what we gave, but none of us were really in any shape to prolong the ending to our outing.

The outpost was obliterated unceremoniously as we detonated the base's low emission reactor and the orbital defenses. Fortunately we had a mechanic with us to speed up that part of the mission. We were barely able to walk by that point, our bodies fueled by stims and our minds slowly cracking under the emotional weight.

It was once we were all back on the shuttle that everything seemed to just… fall apart.

Ben's body had been laid out on one of the benches, taking up that entire side of the shuttle and everybody seemed to just stare blankly at him. It was as though we'd been in some great big cosmic joke where we were the punchline.

I don't remember much of the journey back to the Citadel since time seemed to blend together into one long blank stretch. I do however remember Guy's reaction when we returned without Ben.

He was in shock for about an hour before hysteria set in. He kept yelling at us all, but I think he blamed me for his brother's death the most. I had been the one to push for this, I had been the one to get the information. It had been me.

I sort of shut myself away after that. Everything seemed so… dark and unforgiving and the experience that I'd had with the orb… it had made me feel so _alone_. I knew that I wasn't, I knew that I had friends, possibly even something close to a family here, but while the isolation that I'd felt when the orb had influence over me was comforting at the time, it was crushing now.

I grieved with the others for a day, we'd drank to their memories, told ourselves the truth - that they were already dead and we'd simply put them out of their misery. And after that everything goes dark.

I'd lost a few days.

According to the others it happened when we were on the way back to Victus' place. I just… stopped walking. I hadn't put up a fight when my alter surfaced that evening. I slipped under and I hadn't resurfaced until now.

The room I was in was part of a warehouse in the lower wards, pretty much as far away from C-sec as you can be on the Citadel. The warehouse was empty now, but a few hours ago it had been bustling. A makeshift barrier cage was central to the building, and I was currently viewing omnitool footage of myself inside the cage. A crowd of all kinds surrounded us, Krogan, Turian, Salarian, Human, several Asari and even a few Hanar with Drell escorts could be seen in the video.

A Turian was in the cage with me in this footage. We were both stripped to the waist, cloth bandages wrapped around our hands and feet as we circled each other. There was three days of recordings of me in the ring, fighting in the Citadel underground.

I watched myself wail on my opponents. There was nothing flashy about the way that my alter was fighting here. There was only pure, unbridled hatred and aggression. This opponent got the upper hand on me during the fight, his talons clawing my torso deeply. I watched myself retreat into one of the corners while he took the time to get the crowd going before he finished me off. I hadn't used my biotics in the fights before for some reason, perhaps my alter wanted a challenge, or perhaps it was because he'd been keeping them hidden. It didn't matter. Blood dripped down my chest from the gouges before a roar of defiance came through the din of the crowd, the omnitool footage zoomed in on me then, and I was glowing with biotic light, warpfire billowing around me as I cauterised my own wounds, fury colouring my expression.

The Turian turned in surprise at the noise that I had bellowed, and he took several steps back as I advanced on him. The crowd roared in what seemed like approval then, and in the blink of an eye I was next to the Turian, the short distance charge sending the Turian sprawling on the floor. The shockwave had hurt him badly but the fight wasn't over yet. As I stood over him, the crowd roared their choice, they wanted mercy. I could tell my alter didn't particularly care much for the crowd's opinion, especially so as he grabbed the Turian's crest and snapped a part of it off, the Turian passing out as I walked casually out of the now open cage, the crowd parting as I went.

That hadn't been the only fight that I'd come close to losing, though that was the first one that I used my biotics in. Each fight lasted a handful of minutes, sometimes they would be back to back, other times there would be large gaps of time where I was completely unaccounted for.

At least I know what I was doing when the fighting was on because of the footage. The rest of the time I'd gone dark, nobody knew what I'd been up to, and the only reason that they knew where I was now was because I'd resurfaced and reconnected my omnitool to the net.

I glanced at my hands, my knuckles had multiple lacerations, my fingers had a light coating of dried blood and I'd taped two of them together where one had broken during a fight with a Krogan.

"I'm… I'm sorry." I stammered the words out. They didn't quite seem sincere to me… maybe my alter, maybe some darker part of me had just wanted to cut loose and vent.

"It's alright, Greg. Different people deal with loss in different ways. Sel has had a new partner every night, sometimes more than one. Victus had to stop Clank from seeing the bottom of several bottles of Ryncol every night. You are not alone in this."

"Thank you, Val." I tucked my legs into my chest, my hands running idly down the cold metal, feeling the artificial muscles tense and relax on my command. "What happens now?"

"Well, if you will let us take you, we go home." Valeia stood from where she was perched on a crate as she spoke, sliding down the door next to me, pulling me into her side with one arm.

"I'm sorry I put you all through this." The words came out as barely more than a whisper, but this time I mean it, and I felt Valeia's hand run through my hair in response. "For all of it."

Tears threatened to fall from my eyes before I took in a deep breath and stood, pulling away from Valeia slightly as I did so. I noticed a small part of me felt slightly anxious at the lack of contact and I put a hand out to help her up, a wave of satisfaction passing through me as she took it, even if she dropped it again after a moment.

Together we left the small room, and I grabbed a small duffel bag on the way out. It was mostly empty now, but there was a small stack of credit chits inside, as well as the rolls of bloodied bandages that I'd worn. It had previously contained the clothes that I was wearing, once again fully dressed.

"Did you really have to come all the way out here?" James asked as he looked around the area surrounding the warehouse once we were outside. "It's a bit of a shithole." The statement seemed to ease a bit of the tension that I was feeling, a light chuckle coming from Valeia's lips.

"Hey, don't ask me, ask… well… me I guess." The joke was dumb but the short burst of laughter that it received lifted my spirits somewhat.

"I'm glad you're alright Greg." Tom said, pulling me into a short hug before he jerked his head at James and we set off.

Tom and James walked slightly ahead of myself and Valeia, carving a path through the crowd as we reached the more populated areas. They were subtly keeping people out of my and Valeia's way which was probably for the best. My alter had been in control of my body for over three days, and while I didn't know if he got tired in the same way I did, I didn't want to risk one of the seedier citizens inciting something and having him come out again just after I'd regained control.

The four of us piled into a sky car at a rapid transit station in a nearby market and took off for our local ward. The car was quiet, and I could feel Tom's eyes glancing at me every so often from his spot in the front of the car, but after a couple of minutes I closed my own and tried to just relax for a bit.

My whole body felt sore, I was hungry, wounded, and in desperate need of a shower.

Everyone bar Guy and Sibus was in the apartment when we got in. Victus had a sad look in his eye, and I did my best not to crumble beneath his gaze. He gave me a nod and his mandibles quivered slightly. I wasn't sure what that meant, but it seemed reassuring, if a little disappointed.

"Where did you go?" and "What happened?" were the main questions that I was bombarded with. I knew to expect all the questions, but I still felt a little bubble of frustration rise up in me. I'd never really enjoyed being the center of attention, and even though I knew it would happen it wasn't something that I particularly wanted.

"I… I went into underground fighting." I shrugged, wincing slightly as the motion twinged the muscles in my shoulder. "Apparently my alter had some things he needed to work out. Who knew he'd be so good in the ring?" I joked.

Nobody laughed, instead I mostly got looks of pity, which wasn't what I wanted at all, so I made the excuse of going to get cleaned up and left.

I spent maybe a little too long in the shower that time, I'd sat down on the floor and leant back against the wall as the water crashed down on me. The steady beating that the hot water was giving me relaxing my taut and overused muscles. The water washing off of me had turned a murky brown colour as all the crud that had build up over the past few days was wiped away.

I stuck my finger in the seals on my legs to remove some of the dirt that had accrued there and watched it go down the drain. Somehow everything seemed that little bit darker. Thoughts of Guy played through my head of when we told him what had happened.

I knew he didn't really blame me for his brother's death, but his words still resonated with me because there would always be a part of me that blamed myself for his death. As much as I knew it wasn't true, there would always be that voice in the back of my head that said ' _what if?'_.

I turned the water off and the steam slowly drifted out of the room as I dried myself. I caught a glimpse of myself and barely recognised what I saw.

My muscles were knotted and wounds that shouldn't have existed riddled my body in various stages of healing, though almost all of them were still angry and red. Stubble marred my jaw and I rubbed it, feeling the contours and gently massaging my chin. My hair had grown long in the time I'd been here, I'd need to get it cut soon to stop it falling into my eyes.

They held me the longest.

They'd always been interesting - or so I've been told at least. From a distance they could look like cold steel, but when you looked closely they were green with flecks of brown. They looked somewhat dull now, the blue-grey appearance they took on was now visible even as I leaned in.

I sighed heavily as I leant back and looked down into the sink.

I was done mourning. I had to be.

Splashing water onto my face I looked back up into my eyes and life had bled back into them, determination swelling inside me. Slowly, maybe, but growing all the same. Whatever the Matriarch was planning, I would find out, and I would stop her.

It was a strange few days after that. Guy had been released back to us, although he wasn't allowed to do anything more strenuous than sitting. Sibus too, although he was virtually fully healed by now.

Still, it was good for everyone to be back, even if we were missing one. Though really it was the fact that nobody really knew what to do now that became the worst part. I spent my time training, mostly doing so with Valeia, which was where we were currently heading back from. The both of us were smiling slightly, though we were out of breath.

We'd upgraded our facility from the C-Sec headquarters to the Turian Hierarchy's military base on the Citadel. It was mostly used for shore leave, but there was also a lot of equipment there for drills and practice. Victus had talked to the Turian General on base and in less than two minutes we'd been accepted on site, able to use all of the equipment at the troops disposal. I'd become sure that he was an old Primarch or _something_ , with how much pull he had.

Fortunately for us, the base also included a small Cabal training area where biotic techniques could be practiced safely.

Which had led to an impromptu competition between myself, Valeia and three Cabalists who'd been training at the time. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I had actually managed to pick up in the short time I'd been here. They'd still beaten us, but it hadn't been a curb-stomp or anything so severe, and it had been very nice to fight without our lives on the line. Especially since, so far, my experience of this universe had been extremely "sink or swim".

"That was a cool move you demonstrated at the end there." I complimented Valeia. I wasn't entirely sure what it had been, but what looked like a swirling warp field had hit the dummy, although unlike a warp field, part of the attack had stayed surrounding Valeia herself, and the longer the field was on the dummy, the more revitalised Valeia seemed to look, as though she'd managed to get a good night's sleep during a firefight.

"I believe your people call it a 'reave'. It's useful in prolonged fighting, but compared to more powerful attacks it isn't as good of an option as something like a shockwave." I nodded in understanding before we fell quiet again for a few moments.

"Val… Thank you." There was a strange feeling in my chest as I spoke those words. I didn't know what it meant, but it felt good at least.

"What for?" She paused, her steps stopping for a short moment before resuming.

"For being there for me. I know you didn't have to be." I slowed my pace to let her catch up, then let myself stop as I glanced at our surroundings.

There weren't too many people on this part of the Citadel, but by no means was it empty in the square that we'd ended up in. A few passersby caught my attention, but my eyes wandered as my brain registered their appearance before snapping back to Valeia.

"Nonsense. I'm happy to be." She gave me a smile that made me feel my heartbeat speed up… and it was entirely without input from my brain that I began to lean in to kiss her. At the second to last moment I remembered that if I did anything with her, we would both die, and I don't think I was subtle how I changed it to a hug and a kiss on the forehead before I leaned down too far, but she made no comment.

I saw the remnants of a blush as I pulled away, whether that was because she had similar feelings or simply from embarrassment, I wasn't sure. It didn't look like she was opposed to the idea of being hugged and kissed though...

Which gave me all kinds of ideas. Bad ones, mostly.

As we moved off away from the square some movement caught my eye, two figures were walking parallel to us. One Asari and one Human like we were, although the Human was a woman. It took me a moment but I recognised her from the day I'd had to do the broker's test.

My paranoia began to get the best of me almost immediately, and I steered Valeia off of the straightforward path home.

"Are they following us?" I asked her quietly as I pulled her down an empty side street.

"Who?" She asked, concern colouring her features as she looked behind us for a brief second, disguising the motion by focusing on a nearby store

"Human-Asari pair, I've seen them before. P.I's I think, they aren't wearing uniform but they move like C-Sec."

"Off-duty officers perhaps? Or undercover?" Her head turned slowly back to look ahead and she gave a slight nod.

"Maybe, they could be outsourced by them." I offered. I hadn't been able to see if they'd had any weapons on them, but it was entirely possible.

"Where do you know them from?" Valeia asked as we emerged onto another main thoroughfare, the crowd mostly concealing us - at least for a short time.

"Broker trial mission. They were investigating the same person I was, ended up in the same place too. I think I might have ruined their work."

"Oh great, annoyed cops are after us. This way." We ended up doubling back on ourselves, returning to the original pathway after a couple of minutes. Neither of us could spot them behind us, so we thought we'd lost them in the crowd and relaxed a fair amount, until we saw them ahead of us walking around the corner. The two streets merged where we had spotted them coming from as they opened up into a large marketplace.

"Fuck." I muttered under my breath as Valeia began to lead us into the nearest shop. "Go! Go, go… straight through." I muttered to her as we ducked inside.

"Hey!" I heard a voice call out just as we made it into the store, weaving in and out of the aisles as we scurried through. We dropped down a level using the store and then practically burst out onto the street, only for the commotion of the chase to follow us.

"Split up?" It wasn't the best suggestion, but it always seemed to work in movies.

"Don't be ridiculous." Valeia rolled her eyes dramatically before grabbing my arm and leading us down the street, fighting the flow of people as we went until we ducked into another side alley, travelling down three floors via narrow, badly lit stairwells.

Before I knew it we were outside the Dark Star Lounge, the booming music and titanic sign unmistakeable. The area was pretty much exactly how it looked in-game, although there were a lot more people around. We caught our breath as we walked into the lounge, threading our way through the crowd as quickly and casually as we could manage. Valeia picked out a dimly lit booth to one side of the bar and guided me towards it, and I picked up on her reasons quickly enough; it would hide my legs for the most part, and if we were subtle about it our faces would at least be obscured with how low the lighting was.

She ordered us both drinks while we waited to see if we'd lost our tail, but I couldn't quite relax. I had no idea who they actually were beyond some sort of investigators who I'd managed to obstruct, and no idea what they would want with us if they caught us.

My eyes kept scanning the room, drifting from person to person as I observed the crowd. The Turian bartender was looking more and more annoyed at the human woman who kept trying to talk to him, the mixed irritation and boredom evident on his face as he poured drinks for customers besides the girl.

A small group were dancing in the corner, two Asari moving in the center of their ring of friends while others swayed around them, looking too embarrassed to let loose and really move. Maybe young maidens on their first big night out together?

My attention returned to my own table when a bright green drink was placed in front of me by an attractive Asari waitress, whom Valeia thanked, the dismissal in her tone not harsh, but still evident. I took a swig of the drink in front of me, only to frown at the bitter liquid as it burned down my throat.

"I asked for something strong." Valeia said into my ear, the closeness of her mouth serving to let me hear her over the sound of the music... but also working to send a shiver down my spine. "Try to relax, it'll help you blend in."

I was about to nod when my eyes spotted the Human woman entering the lounge, her gaze scanning the room for us. I was dubious that the low lighting would completely hide us from her search… or at least, that's the excuse I gave myself for what happened next.

Just before her eyes were turned entirely our way, I turned, reached up to cup her chin, and pulled Valeia into a kiss.

The taste of alcohol was on her lips, but there was a deeper, more velvet scent that moved through my mouth. I ran my fingers along the ridges of her crest on the back of her head which gained a quiet thrum of approval. The kiss couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds, and I hoped that we had looked like two lustful patrons as opposed to two people trying to avoid being found.

But that isn't the reason why I was breathing heavily as we pulled away from each other, nor was it the reason why Valeia's eyes were nearly black with anticipation. At least, they were for a moment, before she sat back into the booth, took a sip of her drink and said: "I think we lost them."

I couldn't help but laugh.

We waited for a couple of hours in the bar, watching as people came and went with a drink in our hands. The conversation was mainly focused on whether or not we should try to have some sort of a relationship, and if so, how far we would be able to go. And the answer was unsurprisingly frustrating, especially for someone who for the past two months not only hasn't had any sort of 'action', but who for someone 'embracing eternity' would literally kill.

"I'm sorry, we can't have anything more while you're still suffering from floating mind." Valeia said quietly, though still loud enough for me to hear her across the music.

"Just one more thing to blame on the Matriarch I suppose." I sighed heavily. It sucked, and was deeply frustrating to physically not be able to act upon feelings that had been brewing for some time now, but the alternative was death.

At least we knew where we stood with each other now, something that was surprisingly liberating once you got passed the fact that if anything were to happen, both of us were likely to die.

We got back to Victus' in the early hours of the evening, and unsurprisingly found that most of the others were out doing one thing or another - it wasn't not like there was really much work for us at the moment, and nobody really felt like doing any at the moment in any case.

I had set up in 'my' room, the zen atmosphere helping to calm me further from the antics of the day. Smoke drifted lazily towards the ceiling in swirling motions as the air jostled it from the incense sticks that were lit in the center of the room, the low coffee table serving as stand for the holder.

Gentle music played in the background, not loud enough to be heard throughout the house, but still enough for me to hear it within the confines of the room. It was by a Human artist - for some reason Human music had the most rhythm to it, in my opinion. Asari music was good, but a lot of it was too grand. Batarian and Turian music were too regimented for my taste, much of their musical styles being far too strict. I suppose in a way the music that came out of a species' culture was reflective of that culture... It was an interesting diametric to think about, if nothing else.

I breathed out and tumbled slowly from my standing position into a handstand, stretching out into a series of holds that stretched my overworked back muscles in a way that made my spine crack in a pleasurable manner. As I straightened back up I began to do push-ups in that position. I couldn't go on forever, but I was pleased with the ten that I managed to do.

"Good core work." Victus' croaking flange cut through the sound of the music, and broke me out of the meditative trance that the workout and sounds had put me into.

I had lowered myself into a kneeling position before Victus had announced his presence, which fortunately meant that I didn't have to collect myself off the floor from a surprised bundle.

"Thank you." I stood for him, rolling my shoulders and relaxing before gesturing to one of the chairs at the coffee table. "Here, have a seat."

"Very kind of you, but I shan't stay long." Victus' eyes had a strange gleam to them, and for a moment I wondered if he knew about myself and Valeia… and what he would say about it if he did. "This came for you today."

He pulled out a datapad from under his cloak, a placed it into my palm as I reached for it. He didn't say anything else, just turned and departed, leaving me to discover the contents for myself.

* * *

 **Reviews:**

 **Menschenblut:** thank you for all the positivity in your reviews and suggestions, it means a lot to me that someone else is enjoying the story as much as I am, though sorry for spoiling your fantasy of a final battle and the outpost. To answer your suggestion to knock on the doors, the levi-husks are more open to control when near an orb (at least in my mind) so if they were setting up an ambush, the husks would be kept in a non-reactive state.

 **Rfpizzle:** To be honest when I first started the chapter I was going to have them successfully rescue their friends, but the more I wrote the more it just seemed right that they wouldn't have got their in time, and that their efforts would result in disaster, thanks for the review!


	13. Ch 13: Intermission II: Taskmaster

**A/N:** Finally had time to finish this between working on my degree, life seems to find a way to get in front of me writing this story, but I haven't lost my drive to write it so I hope you'll continue to stick around while I try and power through everything.

* * *

 **Intermission II: Taskmaster**

* * *

"That's just fucking perfect." I whispered as I turned the corner, an oddly familiar sight coming into view as I entered into a courtyard of the lower wards.

The words 'Chora's Den' were displayed prominently in a garish fashion above the door to the establishment, a nude Asari portrayed in an outline of too bright neon lights that occupied the wall beside the door.

The courtyard I'd walked into wasn't particularly busy, but it wasn't empty either; a few gang members were loitering in one of the corners, occasionally glancing up from their omnitools as movement caught their eyes, a drunken Turian was passed out against the wall while a Human vomited beside him. The bass of the music was oppressively loud, even from where I stood on the other side of the open space, not even _in_ the club yet.

I sighed as I pulled the hood on the jumper I was wearing down and took a step forwards, reluctantly making my way across the courtyard. It was so far removed from the Citadel that gets presented by the Presidium, and even the games to an extent that I completely forgot I was on the wretched station.

I could feel the eyes of those present (and conscious) watching me as I journeyed to quite possibly the last place I wanted to be right now. I half expected most of the first game's cast to show up, Harkin and General Oraka to spring at me out of nowhere and slur sleazy lines or complain about how the consort wasn't available for a relationship.

The bouncer on the door was, somewhat surprisingly, a human, although he was at least a foot taller than I and muscled like a brick shithouse. He glanced up at me from the spot he was looking on the ground with a glazed look in his eye and nodded his head to the door which I took as my cue to go in.

The inside of the "gentlemen's" club was fairly similar to the one shown ingame, although the space itself was far larger, which meant there were more tables and dancers than what I remembered there being. A familiar Turian face appeared beside the Krogan bouncer at the back of the room, and I made my way around the bar to get there, turning down several dances and pausing for a moment before I got in the way of a small tiff which ended the moment a Krogan security began to approach the two Humans and the mostly naked Asari they were fighting over.

"Let him through." I heard the Agent say as I neared them, the Krogan sizing me up before stepping aside with a slight snort. "Ignore him, he's just doing his job." she added as I rolled my eyes, walking past the Krogan and doing just that.

"Why are we doing this again? And why here, of all places?" I asked her, the details from the datapad coming to mind. I knew _why_ , and the reasoning behind it was sound, but I wasn't sure why we were doing it _now_ as opposed to _before_.

And the _here_ remained a total unknown.

"Because we need to know that no information can be forced out of you. We've seen your medical report." She added as I glanced at her with an eyebrow raised. "We're doing it here because the broker wants this to stay out of hospital records, and there's a clinic nearby with a doctor the broker trusts to be discreet."

The Turian woman led me through into the rear of the club as she spoke, Fist's private office coming into view as the door slid open. It was easy to see that the room had been shuffled to make room for a load of medical equipment, which also came with an Asari doctor who the club owner was currently ogling unsubtly.

"Ah, you're here." The doctor spoke as we entered, sounding relieved for something to happen so she could escape Fist's obviously lustful gaze. It's not like she wasn't attractive, but most Asari were to some degree. "You must be Greg."

"In the flesh." I returned with a short wave of a hand. "So how are we doing this? Just on the floor... or?" The doctor laughed lightly as I gestured to the floor around me in jest.

"Just take a seat and we'll begin." She turned to the equipment in the room, picking up a few pads and turning on some of the machines which produced a low whine as they became active, the vibrating thrum still felt through the muted bass coming from the club.

"Finally." Fist spoke up from behind his desk, his gruff voice breaking through the sound of scraping as I pulled the chair across the floor. "I don't want you people here any longer than you have to be."

"Don't forget who set you up here, 'Fist'. It wouldn't be hard for him to take it away again." The crime boss shrank considerably at the Agent's reminder that he had been nothing without the Broker, and I began to wonder how that deal went down.

Still though, I could understand the sentiment from Fist, I wouldn't want Broker agents using my office as a makeshift ward either, but the way that he was talking made it seem as though he thought he actually had a mote of authority over what happened here, despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary.

So, while I glanced at the 'mob boss', I didn't pay him too much mind, taking the doctor's advice and grabbing a chair of my own. It was one of the several faux leather chairs near the wall, the material made soft from use, and I sank into its comfort before leaning back, taking advantage of a slight recline created by the cushioning. The Asari doctor came into view once I was settled, and began to scan me with her omnitool before placing nodes around my skull and attaching two slightly larger plates to my temples.

"Ok, I'm just going to turn the machine on. Let me know if you feel any pain during the test." She turned away for a moment, her omnitool glowing over something before a slight buzz filled the air and a low static charge began to build itself up around me.

The hairs on my arms had begun to raise themselves, but there wasn't any pain yet… if anything it was almost relaxing to simply lay back and feel the odd sensation.

That all changed as soon as the first current passed through the plates on my head, a wave of biotic energy flowing into my brain. Almost the instant it had begun, the pain became unbearable, darkness began to creep in around the edges of my vision, my breath became short as a strangled noise escaped my throat, something wet and warm trickled from my ears, my nose leaking more body fluids.

The next thing that I understood was the cool touch of metal on my chest. The beeping of a heart monitor coming from nearby, and the light blinding me through my eyelids.

As soon as I tried moving an involuntary groan forced its way out of my throat as my head throbbed dangerously. It was like waking up from the worst hangover of my life but without any of the enjoyment that might have made it easier to bear. It was a not so painless reminder of the first time I'd woken up in this universe.

"I've got to say, I've never seen a case as bad as this. The reports are definitely correct, this man has floating mind. The _thing_ that did this to him… I shudder to think." I could hear the voice of the Asari doctor, although the sound was slightly muffled.

"Well as unpleasant as this turned out to be I thank you for your help doctor. The Broker wouldn't want to have his investment die before the exchange could be completed." The Broker agent replied, relief colouring her tone slightly.

"Don't move too quickly there." The doctor called as I began to sit back up from where I'd slumped in the chair. A damp towel had been placed over the armrest, and as I picked it up to wipe the sweat from my forehead I saw that it had already been used to clean up a fair amount of blood if the red stains were anything to go by.

I stared at the red for a little bit, then chose a clean part of the towel to wipe my face with.

The doctor collected her equipment while I recovered, removing the metal plates from around my skull as she offered a large glass of water to me that I gratefully gulped down after giving my thanks. Both for the water, and for not killing me. She gave me a weary smile and departed with some of the equipment through a back door, a few of Fist's men coming to help her move the rest.

"Well, I suppose now that that unpleasantness is out of the way we can get down to business." The Turian agent made her way to a chair opposite my own as I felt myself begin to normalise again, the pounding in my chest and skull dying down a bit as I got control over my still unsteady breathing.

"The Broker has deemed this task as suitable payment for the information we gave in good faith." A datapad was tossed to me from Fist as he sat behind his desk, an annoyed look on his face.

Then again, I'd probably be annoyed too if some stranger bled all over my nice chair.

"The details are on there, but to give you a brief run down, you will be heading out to Illium to gather information on multiple targets." The agent paused for a moment while I looked down at the datapad, recognising two of four sigils.

"That's the Eclipse, the Blue Suns, I don't recognise the other two." It was evident I was going to be looking into merc outfits, gathering information on them - whether that included their leadership remained to be seen, although I doubted there was much left of the Suns to investigate given what I'd heard on the news. Still though, the other two sigils intrigued me; the first was an odd Turian looking design done in matte grey, something like a pair of crossed daggers. The second was a slashing rune, maybe Batarian.

"The True Sons. Based on Omega, of course, they were beholden to the Blue Suns for a variety of reasons, but were largely used as a front to disrupt rival operations, particularly the Eclipse. They've mostly disappeared for the moment, but they have a history of bouncing back after nearly being exterminated. They have a few strongholds left on Illium around Karshan minor." She spoke as I skimmed through the files, the true Sons had taken very heavy losses from the fourth group on my list, House Shaaryak, right up until the Blue Suns had fallen apart.

"House Shaaryak are a prominent Highborn Batarian family in the merchant caste, and the only family of ranking to operate outside of the Hegemony. Xerol, the house Patriarch, recently passed away and frustratingly little is known about his niece and how she will act in the coming months. I'm sure you can figure out what we want you to do."

"Sure." I replied, finally tearing my eyes away from the 'detailed' briefing in my hands. "They're all on Illium bar the Blue Suns from what I know, I'll need some time to work on them."

"When will you be ready to leave?" The agent asked in a polite tone that suggested the answer should be sooner rather than later.

"Will I be able to bring a team?" I queried, not particularly wanting to head to Illium of all places, on a mission for the Shadow Broker, without any backup. I didn't know much about the real Illium, but what little I'd heard suggested that the games had vastly understated how screwed up the place was.

"Of course." She replied easily with a slight wave of her hand.

"I'll need a day or two to prep, is that acceptable?" The agent merely nodded her head and rose. I followed suit, turning and heading for the exit to Fist's office.

"Finally, some peace and goddamn quiet." He 'muttered' none too quietly before we left the room.

What an ass.

I decided to walk the journey back after saying my goodbyes to the agent. The travel time would let me think about what I'd need, the sort of preparations I'd need to make. I didn't doubt that this was going to be a long, arduous assignment, and I was under no illusions that the Broker would simply call it quits once I'd done my part.

Still though, I was looking forward to _doing_ something, getting off this wretched station and finding some sort of direction that I could take. The Matriarch was still the grand prize, but she wasn't going anywhere any time soon, of that I was sure. That meant that I had time to try and resolve my relationship with the Broker, maybe improve my skills a bit, maybe find some more allies.

But for now, I had a job to do. We'd need weapons, that was certain, provisions wouldn't need to be accounted for at first, not if we were on Illium. Money was a resource we needed an abundance of, no doubt about that.

A quick check of my account showed that the money I'd given to Barla Von had almost increased five-fold already. It was a good start, enough of a war chest to upgrade our equipment, or to find a cheap apartment or hotel once we made it to Illium.

I'd also need to check with Jun if he or Hock had made any progress on the cloaking units the Asari had used at the fundraiser. If we could get some of those in working condition it would make things a lot easier - even if they only worked for brief periods of time, infiltrating strongholds would be far simpler than they would be otherwise.

And then I thought about who would want to come.

Sure, we were a team so I could have said everyone, but I knew that that wouldn't be the case. I'd gotten myself into this situation, and I was sure one or two of the guys would leave me to get myself out of the hole I was in, but it wasn't certain.

James would likely come with me, he always seemed to perk up when there was a mission to do, although being an N6 probably had something to do with that. Val would come with me if I asked her, although with how things stood between us there was a small part of me that believed she would say no. Sel would come for the debauchery most likely, which brought a small smile to my face.

Sibus and Blueberry would want something to do, so I'm sure they'd appreciate the offer, likewise with Jun. Guy however would most likely to me to go fuck myself.

I pushed the thought aside and thought about the kind of ordinance we should bring. Nothing too heavy, we weren't going to go exterminate entire districts on Illium, but I wanted to be able to comfortably fight a heavily armed group such as the Blue Suns or Eclipse considering they were on my list.

My surroundings became less and less craven as I walked, returning more to the city-scape that it truly was as opposed to the slum-like areas of the lower wards. Rather than stay on the main run, I swerved down a currently empty side-street that would cut the travel time down by few minutes.

I was about half-way into the alley when an Asari rounded the corner I was walking towards, her demeanor one of annoyance, but I continued onwards warily. I didn't really want to get mugged today, if that was what was even about to happen.

A quick check behind me confirmed my suspicions that something was up, as the P.I. woman that kept following me had shown up, blocking the way behind me somewhat. That identified the Asari ahead as her partner.

I sighed quietly to myself, feeling my body go slightly limp at the thought of how my day was turning out.

"Could always be worse." I muttered quietly to myself as I began to near the approaching alien. As I moved to get around her she placed an arm out in front of me to block my path.

"Look, I really don't have time for whatever this is." I pushed her arm down out of the way so that I could move past, at which point she began glowing with biotic power, her other hand snapping up, pressing on my chest as she forced me into the wall.

"We just have some questions for you." She said with an icy tone. She clearly didn't like me, but I don't remember doing anything to her - besides possibly botching up an investigation, but I didn't see why she would be quite so vicious towards me.

"What do you want?" The words were terse, and I could feel my alter begin to stir under the surface. I didn't particularly want him to come out right now, it hadn't been all too long since I'd shut him away, and I quite liked having control over my own body.

"Why were you following Ceil Drimi?" The human woman asked, now having caught up to us both. Her voice had a professional edge to it, although she couldn't have been much older than I was... and I was barely old enough to be considered an adult myself. "Before you say anything we know it was you, don't even try to deny it."

"Somebody asked me to. What's it to you?" I answered as best I could without giving anything away and trying not to seem too defensive.

She crossed her arms, clearly not impressed. "You got in the way of our investigation and tipped off our suspect that we were onto her, all of the evidence that we were gathering was removed or is now inconsequential, all thanks to you."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but it's not my problem." I removed the Asari's hand from my chest, trying to keep control over the internal situation as my alter began to itch my subconscious. She let me move her limb but didn't back off, staying annoyingly, threateningly close.

"Who asked you to look into her? You're not a licensed investigator, and you got in the way of a C-sec sanctioned operation." The human of the pair continued. Her voice was emotionless as she spoke, although there was a gleam in her eye that almost seemed desperate.

Not that I could say for sure though… nor did I have any idea why she'd feel that way.

"Why should I tell you that?" I responded, incredulity colouring my voice. "All you've done since then is tail me, and now you're trying to threaten me in a back alley." If looks could kill, I'd probably be dead. The Asari of the pair had narrowed her eyes and a snarl started to form just as her biotics were beginning to manifest themselves.

Predicting the strike that was coming as she lunged at me, I sidestepped and watched her fist strike the wall behind me, a clang of metal sounding beside me as I ducked under a second swing, redirecting the blow to the side… and straight into the human woman who had edged forwards, either to grab me or restrain her partner, I wasn't sure.

Unfortunately for her the punch was level with her face, which meant that the Asari's fist collided with her nose in a shower of blood. The Asari's face immediately turned from rage-filled to horrified as her compatriot crumpled under the blow, unable to stop her falling to the floor in a heap.

Despite the heavy blow, it could have been a lot worse. The Asari had obviously been trained at some point in her life as the biotic force had lessened once she had realized that the attack had missed.

"Jesus were you going to try and kill me?" I asked in mild disbelief as I unslung the bag that I usually carried with me and pulled out a medigel pack and some gauze from a first aid kit I carried with me in one of the smaller pouches.

"Here." I moved the Asari aside and wiped away the blood with the gauze.

"If you hurt her…" The threat from above and behind made me pause wiping to raise an eyebrow at the Asari.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now? You're the one that just broke the poor girl's nose." I shook my head as I resumed cleaning the wound. The woman stirred under my motions and I knew that she was regaining consciousness. "She'll have a concussion. Just take it easy with her."

I didn't bother staying for thanks, it wasn't as though I'd get any, but at least they'd hopefully stop tailing me while I was on station. At the very least they didn't make any motion to follow, and the rest of the return journey passed without incident, although I was much more on edge than I would have been otherwise.

Still, I sort of knew who they were now. Actual private investigators who were half decent if the C-sec sanction meant anything. By the time I'd returned to the house I'd already planned on finding out what I could about the pair on my downtime. If they were so adamantly interested in me I could at least figure out who they were themselves.

"Ah, Greg, you're back. Good." Victus called to me as I strode in through the door. Guy and Sibus were in the front room, quietly working on something on their omnitools while Sel'ama and Berrilius were lounging in front of today's clawball fixture.

"Hey Victus, things been busy?" I headed over to the ancient Turian and thanked him for a drink that he passed.

"Not overly so. You look like you've had a bit of a rough day?" He probed, the line of questioning threw me slightly, although I supposed that the events of the day were probably showing on my person as bright as the garish sign at Chora's Den.

"Sort of. The pad was a summons from the Broker, although I'm sure you already knew that. They tested me for floating mind using some sort of eezo machine… and I definitely have it. The thing might've killed me if it was on any longer than it was." I paused to gauge his reaction to the news that I'd almost died, _again_ , today but he said nothing, only a slight quiver of his mandibles betraying a moment of sympathy. "And then the investigators that have been following me the past week showed up. Tried to ask me a load of stuff about what I was up to the other week."

"I trust you didn't give them anything useful?" It was reassuring to know that the old man was on my side, although I supposed that would only be as long as I continued to make what he thought were the best decisions that I could.

"No, no, they didn't get anything out of me. Although one of them did end up with a broken nose." I gestured down the front of my clothing. "Hence… although some of it might also be mine from the test."

"You know, attacking any sort of law enforcement is a sure way to get yourself locked up." Guy droned from where he sat, his tone slightly mocking.

"I never touched her, the Asari tried to hit me when I made to leave, I moved out the way and she hit her partner. I gave her some medigel and cleaned her up a bit, but I reckon she's got a nasty concussion at the moment." I knew that things between myself and Guy might never again be what they once were, but we were sort of talking again.

At least he wasn't openly blaming me for it anymore.

"Must've been quite the hit." Victus remarked as he made his way across the room to stand behind the two watching the game.

"Yeah it was weird, the Asari had this… vicious hate in her eyes and then as soon as she'd failed to hit me and got her partner by accident it was like a switch flipped in her head, she became this docile thing as though she'd done some great wrong." And while yes, she had, it was something more than that, as though she knew that she would be punished for the incident.

"Well she did." Sibus chipped in. "She broke her partner's nose."

"It's not like it was on purpose, she was just stood in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like I said, it was weird." I took another swig from my drink and joined Victus behind the couch. "Who's winning?"

"Nos Irrail are taking a beating this half, they put up a good fight in the first though." Sel'ama replied, her eyes not straying from the screen displaying the match.

"Maybe we can go to a match or two. I've got to go to Illium for a while." At that all eyes turned to me, mostly in surprise, although Victus just had a knowing look in his. It was as though he was expecting me to say something of the sort, and I wouldn't be surprised if he already knew that that was were I would be heading. He seemed to have an uncanny knack for knowing that sort of thing.

"Oh you really don't want to be heading there Greg." Guy said from behind me, a look perilously close to concern on his face when I turned to look at him. "No sense in losing another of us."

"I have to go. I made this bed, now I've got to lie in it." I countered. A part of me did want to go, maybe to get off the station whose walls were beginning to feel as though they were closing around me and to once again be on an actual planet, while the other part of me wanted nothing to do with the place.

"When do you leave?" A flanging voice called from behind me and I turned again to look at Sibus.

"I've got a day or two to prepare and then I'm going." I paused for a moment as everyone realised that things were coming into motion once again. "I don't want to go alone though."

I hoped that they would understand that meant I wanted them to come with me, but I also knew that they really didn't have to join me.

"How long are you going for?" Guy asked. I had a feeling the answer would dictate his response more than it would for the others, but I had to be truthful.

"I'm not quite sure to be honest. I've got to investigate four different groups for anything worth knowing. I could find out everything I need to know in a couple weeks, or it could be months before I get anything." That truth didn't sit with me particularly well, but at the same time there was nothing that I could really do to change it right now.

"I'll need to get some gear ready, but I should be able to leave in two days time." Sibus said from behind me, a determined look in his eye. "You're family now, Greg. We won't leave you to be swallowed by Illium."

"Screw it, goddess knows I'm not doing anything useful here." Sel' shifted from her sprawled position to a more upright one as she looked at me. "Just get me a ticket or two and we'll be even."

"If you're going after those merc groups you'll need all the help you can get." Berrilius injected from where he sat, a look flashing across his eyes before he returned his attention to the game. "Count me in."

"Thanks guys." The words took a moment to get out. I didn't know what else to say. "I'm… I'm gonna get myself ready."

I wandered towards my room, and I could feel their eyes on me. I breathed a quiet sigh as I looked around the room that had become mine. There were barely any possessions held within - I'd not exactly been the most material person before my arrival in this universe, but I'd still had possessions.

The thought of moving once again brought memories of my childhood to the surface. I'd had to move every few years because of my parents' jobs. It wasn't anything I hadn't been able to handle, but as I pulled out a large duffel bag and began to pack my things I couldn't help but reminisce.

The quiet clinking of medals won from tournaments had rang in my head each time I'd had to move them from where they hung at the end of my bed. The flash of a photo being taken making the medals fall to the floor with a muted thud as metal hit carpet. My mother had been holding the disposable camera and peeked over the top of it with a smile as she wound the film for a second shot.

I remember complaining to her, telling her not to sneak up on me.

I grabbed yet another item from my room and placed it in the duffel bag as I did my best to remember their faces. It had only been a couple of months since I'd arrived here, but already their memory was growing murky. Not dramatically so, mind, but it felt as though they were slipping away, falling out of my memory.

With the majority of my belongings already packed away I decided that I would draw them as I remembered them, so that they would go through this journey with me. I was interrupted by the quiet sound of approaching footsteps as I finished the construction work for the family portrait, a mess of graphite and rubber shavings littered one side of the thick paper where I'd wiped the unwanted material away.

"I heard you're leaving." Valeia's voice broke the silence softly.

"Yeah." I couldn't help but heave a sigh as I spoke, turning up to look at her. "The Broker is sending me to Illium. I gotta look into a few different factions there or something."

"Illium's a rough place, Greg." She sat beside me, glancing at the early stages of my drawing. "Looks like you." She pointed at the one on the far left.

"That's my dad. At least, what I think I can remember about him." I placed the drawing equipment on the page and stood, moving to grab the Broker datapad with all of the information I needed on it and brought it back over to her, allowing her to look over the contents. "But yeah, I know about Illium, it's pretty much one step above Omega, and by all accounts that place is a literal shithole."

"Eclipse? Blue Suns? You know Illium is a difficult place to survive on your own as it is… But to go snooping around those groups… Greg, I don't think you're ready for it yet." Valeia was about to continue when I interrupted her with two words.

"I know." I paused to look at her face, and it became apparent that at least some of the others had offered to come with as well without having told her about it.

"So far Sibus, Berry and Sel have offered to come with me. I know it's not exactly going to be safe work - probably not even that exciting, but it'll give us a chance to get out and do something." I watched as Val's face changed from shock to one of mild annoyance.

"Athame's ass I wish they would have told me, I had a big speech prepared about why you shouldn't be going on your own and everything." A light laugh escaped my lips as she huffed at me.

"Will you come too?" I asked, hesitantly hoping that she would say yes. It might not be the healthiest thing for me at the moment, but I didn't particularly care right now.

"Of course." A beaming smile took over her face which faded slightly after a moment. "We do have somewhere to stay there, right?"

* * *

 **Thank you all for reading the story so far,**

 **The next chapter shall begin 'Act II: Out of the Frying Pan', and with it our protagonist will find himself truly entering the world of 'Another Realm'.**

 **Happy holidays everyone!**

* * *

 **Reviews:**

 **rfpizzle -** The Asari programming might not be as total as you think, but I'm glad that you've caught on. To that end, thank you for the praise, it means a lot, especially since I wrote the beginning of the chapter reactively to the some unfortunate events.

 **Tusken1602 -** As seen in this chapter too! I'm also hoping people will have gotten the reference to Katkiller's Korolev with a broken nose

 **menschenblut -** Thank you again for your continued feedback, and for spotting some of the mistakes that myself and Kat have been missing, for example why the last chapter had an abundance of 'h's' missing from certain words. In other news, I was being slowly overwhelmed by work but I've gotten on top of it all again and I'm enjoying myself doing it, I hope you're also having an easier time of things.


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